A Different Kind of Ghost
by violetkitty
Summary: Kat's in high school, Philip's having another crisis of faith. Nick's facing an old girlfriend, and Rachel didn't know Derek had a daughter. Derek's got personal demons to face and Alex, as always, is just trying to keep the place running...
1. prologue

**- prologue -**

_San Francisco, California_

The darkness was choking and thick, swirling around her angrily. Somewhere deep down Katherine Corrigan knew that none of it was real, not the horrible blackness or the deafening howling. Still, it wasn't a place she wanted to be. She tried to run, but the darkness held her fast in place. She wanted to scream, but couldn't.

It unfolded too quickly to remember it all. Too much red, a fist lashing out, an imposing figure standing at the top of an unfamiliar staircase, a scream of pain. She tried to cover her ears but found she couldn't move at all. A deep foreboding settled into her stomach, heavy like a stone. The darkness was trying to swallow her whole.

When she awoke her room was dark, but wholly familiar. Her heart was hammering out against her ribs and her hair clung to her forehead, stuck fast by a thin layer of sweat. She threw off her blanket and stumbled toward the bathroom. The light was blinding when she flicked on the switch, causing her to stop short before turning on the cold water full blast. She splashed her face and pulled down a nearby towel. When she was finally dry she stopped to look at her reflection in the mirror.

The girl staring back at her seemed completely unfamiliar. She had changed so much in the past few months. Entering the 9th grade was hard enough, but her visions seemed to be getting stronger as she aged. It didn't help that the school she attended was full of horrible snooty girls who all but ignored her existence despite her efforts. Sleep had become a precious commodity, and the lack of it showed in the dark circles that had begun to form under her eyes. She sighed loudly.

"You're looking rough, Corrigan." She told herself, giving her face another splash before turning out the light and making her way back to bed. As she closed her eyes and pulled the covers back on she prayed silently that there wouldn't be anymore dreams that night.

_Paris, France_

It felt like the whole world fell away for a split second before slamming back together around her head. Her visions were always like that, pulled apart at every molecule and instantly reassembled. This time she was left with a throbbing headache that radiated from her temples, and she was forced to sit down behind the bar. The music was still blaring, but she couldn't get the images out of her head. An angry patron was pounding on the bar, waving money in her face. Luka appeared from the kitchen, and upon seeing her crouched, dropped the tray of glasses he was carrying on the table and knelt down by her side.

"What's wrong, petite?" he asked gently, and she shook her head slowly.

"I'm fine, it's just a headache." She promised, and his dark eyes were still skeptical.

"Talya…" he started, but she was on her feet already.

"Do you mind if I take off early? Celeste is expecting me to help her do some research tonight."

"You and your housemates are always researching. What could you possibly need to know so much about?" he asked, and she could only smile. Kissing his cheek she fished under the bar to find her coat. Once she had pulled the leather over her slender shoulders and taken her share of the tips she was out the door and into the cool Paris night. She almost laughed at the thought of telling Luka what they were researching. _Hi, my name is Natalya, and I work for a secret society bent on stopping evil and solving mysteries. Why yes, it is a lot like Scooby Doo…_

She was used to the visions; she'd had them for as long as she could remember. She only wished that recently they'd been filled with a few less familiar faces. They had aged, certainly, but the basic idea was the same. Nick's crooked smile, Philip's haunting stare… and most disturbingly, Derek's disapproving gaze. She tried not to think of the things she'd seen as she negotiated the Metro and wound her way back to the Paris Legacy house.

When she finally made it home the house was dark. Celeste and Marie had apparently gone to bed, and Alejandro would be in Beijing until Tuesday. She saw the papers on the hall table as soon as she walked in the door. She'd been dreaming of them for weeks, even if she didn't know what they said. Now she knew without a doubt what they contained, and barely had to glance at them. The words at the top were bold enough, _**Immediate transfer of Natalya Samuelle Rayne**_**. **The little sticky note was a nice touch, Alejandro had never been the most sensitive precept. _Sorry Tals, Edmund won't take no for an answer_. She didn't even look at the location of the transfer. There was only one reason Edmund would get involved in all of this, and it meant that her worst fear was about to be realized. She was going home to San Francisco.


	2. chapter 1

( 1 )

When the driver pulled to a stop in front of the door Rachel Corrigan could feel her nerves sinking like a lump of ice in her stomach. Nick's instructions had been clear enough. _Get to the island, ASAP. _ It was a horrible night to be traveling, the wind was tearing through the trees and the sky threatened to open up, but Rachel had felt the urgency of Nick's plea. Kat was slumped in the seat next to her, big blue-green eyes gazing forlornly into the dark outside her window.

"We won't be long, I promise." Rachel tried to assure her, but the young girl just heaved a sigh.

"Whatever. I don't see why I couldn't just stay home. I'm practically fourteen." She grumbled, and Rachel fought the urge to correct her. Barely thirteen was nowhere near "practically fourteen" and with Kat's recent behavior Rachel didn't feel comfortable leaving her on her own.

"We'll only be here for a little bit." She repeated instead of explaining, stepping out of the car and under the waiting umbrella. Dominick smiled down at her as he ushered the pair into the dry foyer. It was there they were assaulted by the sight of nearly a dozen boxes, of different shapes and sizes, piled around the room. A pair of housekeepers were busy carrying them up the stairs. Normally boxes in the foyer would be nothing out of the ordinary; things were always being sent there. But these clearly didn't contain artifacts; they were labeled in black magic marker with words like "DVDS" and "SHOES". Kat had already disappeared toward the kitchen and Rachel went straight to the library. Nick was sitting in one of the armchairs, fiddling absently with one of the chess pieces. When he saw her walk in he jumped up, face lighting.

"Rachel, I'm really glad you could make it on such short notice. The storm looks pretty bad but I wasn't sure what else to do. Derek's been up in his office all afternoon, won't talk to anyone. It has something to do with the boxes in the hall, but I don't know much more than that." He explained quickly, crossing his arms and looking at her hopefully. She could feel the ice in her stomach melting.

"That's it? You want me to talk to Derek? Jesus Nick, I was expecting to find you guys mid exorcism or something, your message sounded so urgent…" she began, the relief clear in her voice. Nick could only shake his head.

"No, this is important. I've never seen him like this. He got a call and just… lost it. Grabbed a bottle of scotch and went straight upstairs. Haven't heard a sound since." He added, and Rachel nodded slowly.

"Okay, okay. You're worried, I get that. Let me see what I can do." She offered, heading out of the library and up the stairs. When she reached the closed office door she felt her nerves return. There was something very foreboding about that room at the moment, but she wasn't sure if it was the feeling she had or Nick's warning. She knocked softly, and waited for some noise from within. When no sound came she tried again, and this time the door swung open a little. A shadow passed inside as Derek's silhouette moved back to the window, picking up the glass on the tabletop and leaning against the oak desk. Rachel hesitated for only a moment before pressing inside.

"Close the door." Derek's voice demanded, and she immediately complied. Once they were shut in the dark silence Rachel finally worked up the nerve to say something. The only light came from the city, barely visible across the bay in the distance.

"What's going on, Derek? You've got Nick out there running in circles." She told him, and he was very quiet. It was the silence that was really frightening. Derek was almost always in control. One of the only times she'd ever seen him like that was when he was marked by the scroll, being driven mad by the mark of Cain. He took a long drink of the scotch and finally turned. Rachel gasped. "Derek, I hate to say this, but you look like hell."

"There are things I haven't told you, Rachel, and I'm worried about what you might think of me." he responded hoarsely, finishing his drink and walking around to the front of the desk. In the dim light she could only make out his outline, but the despair in his posture was apparent.

"Whatever it is, I'm sure it can't be that bad. I mean, you helped me through a demon pregnancy and never once used it against me… that's got to count for something." She joked lamely, but could see she was getting nowhere. "I promise then, I won't judge. Just tell me what's wrong so I can keep Nick from wearing a hole in the carpet."

He got up then, moving back around the desk and pulling open one of the desk drawers. He retrieved a picture frame and walked back to her. The smell of liquor was absolutely radiating off of him as he handed her the frame. She examined it closely. The picture was black and white, and featured Derek probably twenty years earlier holding a small girl. She had dark hair and bright eyes. One hand was grasping his lapel and the other pointed to something unseen in the distance. Derek looked gloriously happy, and Rachel tried to reconcile the man in the picture with the one before her. She placed a careful finger on the girl.

"When I was younger I spent some time at the Paris House, mostly work visits but a few social calls. Their forensic researcher was a woman named Antoinette Samuelle, and she and I spent a good deal of time together. I loved her greatly, but she was very focused on her work. I came back to San Francisco and years passed. I never heard from her, until I found out she had died. It was when they dropped a six-year-old girl at the house." He explained slowly, and instantly Rachel noticed the girl in the picture had his eyes. "She had realized soon after I left that she was pregnant, and though I'll never know why, she felt she had to keep it from me. When she was gone, though, I was the only one left to care for our daughter."

"What's her name?" Rachel asked quietly, trying to hold back the stream of questions that flew into her head.

"Natalya. Natalya Samuelle." He answered, taking the photo back and placing it on the desk.

"And she lived here?"

"Until she was thirteen." He told her, without explaining why she left.

"And now she's coming back?" she posed, and Derek's eyes shot up.

"How did you know that?" he snapped, and she took a step back.

"There are about a dozen boxes in the foyer. I just assumed…"

"She's being transferred from the Paris House. Edmund is up to something, I can feel it. There's no way she put in for it…" he explained, stopping short as though he'd said too much. He tried a tired smile, but it just looked forced. "You can go tell Nick that I'm not possessed."

_If I want to lie, maybe._ Rachel thought, but allowed herself to be ushered out of the room anyway. When she made it back to the library Kat and Nick were sitting on opposite sides of the table, laughing and playing what looked like a very intense card game. It had been quite a while since she had seen Kat laugh, and found herself smiling in spite of her recent confusion. When the pair at the table noticed her return Nick was on his feet in an instant and Kat's permascowl had returned in full force. Rachel heaved a sigh, walking down the short steps and sitting down at the table.

"Well, I talked to him, and I think you're overreacting." She started, and obvious relief washed over Nick's boyish features. "He's just a little anxious, I think, since his daughter is being transferred here. I'm still a little disturbed he didn't tell me he had a child, it seems like such an obvious conversation …"

Nick's face went ashy white and he looked as though he'd seen a ghost. Kat looked between the adults, glad that something interesting was _finally _happening.

"Natalya's been transferred back here?" he asked, clearly not knowing what to do with the information. Rachel nodded, curious about his reaction. He was on his feet in an instant, mumbling something about an early night and getting some sleep, and before anyone could say anything else he was out the door and Kat and Rachel were alone. Kat rolled her eyes, pushing back from the table and stomping toward the door.

"Geez mom, you sure know how to clear a room." She called back, disappearing into one of the living rooms. Rachel sat alone at the table, dumbfounded, when Alex came in carrying a tray of tea.

"Where did everyone go?" she asked, and Rachel could only shrug. Alex offered her a sympathetic smile. "Do you want some tea?"

Rachel nodded emphatically, though she was quite sure that no amount of tea could fix her evening.


	3. chapter 2

( 2 )

Over the next couple of days Rachel continued to gather tidbits of information about Derek's elusive daughter. Apparently she was twenty five years old, and had been living at the Paris Legacy house since she was thirteen. Originally, Rachel discovered, she had been in the care of Legacy member Maria Genovese, but when the woman died several years later Natalya became an emancipated minor. Rachel had discovered all this when she'd finally given up asking Derek and Nick for information and gone straight to the Legacy database. There hadn't been a lot of information, but certainly more than either of the men had offered. They both refused resolutely to discuss her, and Alex had never met her.

Between Kat's teenage angst and her secret information recovery missions Rachel was exhausted on Sunday afternoon when there was an unexpected knock at the door. She and Kat were at the house in anticipation of Natalya's arrival, but the girl wasn't expected to get in until quite a bit later. Dominick was nowhere to be found, and since she was the only one in the area she found herself answering. When she pulled open the door she stopped short, then smiled broadly and embraced the man standing in the entryway.

"I thought maybe you'd forgotten about me staying here while I was in town, but the car was there at the launch waiting for me…" Philip explained, laughing as Rachel hugged him tightly. She'd really needed some extra support in the last couple days and was glad Philip's somewhat spontaneous visit was able to coincide with the drama.

"I'm really glad you're here." She told him, moving to the side as Alex came rushing down the stairs to envelope him in another embrace. He held her for a moment also before setting down his suitcase.

"With a welcome like this, I should stop by more often." He replied, following as Alex grabbed his bag and led them all into the living room. He sat with Rachel on one of the flowered couches and Alex perched herself on a nearby ottoman.

"Things have been crazy around here, crazier than normal even." Rachel said, sharing a glance with Alex that Philip didn't understand.

"Are you working on a case, something you need my help on? I'm in town on church business but you know I'm always willing to lend a hand." He offered, and Alex leaned forward happily.

"Well, it's not a case exactly, but I think you can help us." She said, and Rachel was nodding too.

"Yes, you lived here when you were younger, right? Before you entered the seminary?" Rachel asked, and Philip nodded slowly.

"That was a long time ago, but yes. I was, seventeen I think, stayed the summer before I entered St. Patrick's." he replied, a funny kind of faraway look settling into his eyes.

"Was that about the same time Derek's daughter left?" Rachel finally asked, and Philip looked completely surprised by the question. He glanced between them, as though trying to decide how to proceed. Finally he nodded.

"At the end of that summer was when she left. Things were actually very tense around here then. But I'm not quite sure why you're asking…" his voice trailed off uncertainly, and this time it was Alex that spoke up.

"She's been transferred here, and it's got both Derek and Nick in a twitch but they won't say why. We were hoping you could fill in the blanks." She told him, and a happy smile streaked across his face before his features settled back into a mask of concern.

"So they finally dragged her back? Really, I'm surprised it took this long." He said cryptically, and his smile crept back quietly.

"You know her, then?" Rachel pressed. Philip's face remained happy, but he would only nod slowly.

"Yes, I know her. Natalya is very… special. She's had a hard time, but she's a lovely person." He told them simply, and Rachel resisted the urge to press the subject. Philip stood up suddenly, causing the two women to jump. "I'm going to grab a shower, it was a long trip. Let me know when she gets here, okay?"

Alex nodded and watched as Philip disappeared up the stairs. She shared a look with Rachel, who shrugged.

"That was… useless." Alex announced, joining Rachel on the couch and slumping over. They sat there, defeated for a quite a while, before Kat poked her head into the living room.

"There's some girl in the entryway, and she's soaked." She told them, and they were on their feet instantly. They made their way to the foyer, where there was indeed a girl dripping on the carpet. She was quite tall and rather thin, dressed simply in a pair of skinny black jeans, a white tee shirt, a thin linen scarf, and a now most likely ruined leather jacket. She had dark brown hair that fell over her shoulders and dripped with rainwater, and from her pale round face a pair of dark green eyes were looking around with interest. When the two women appeared in the doorway she glanced up, offering a bright smile.

"Hi, I'm Natalya." She offered, moving forward and holding out a hand. Alex stepped forward first, looking back to Rachel as she shook the girl's hand. When Alex drew back she was damp from the contact and Natalya gave them a sheepish glance. "Sorry, I'm a little wet. I thought there would be a car waiting, but when one didn't come I decided to walk. It's getting nasty out there."

"I'm Rachel Corrigan, and this is Alex. It's nice to meet you…" Rachel said, taking her turn in the handshake before noticing Kat still lurking nearby. She motioned toward her, "That's my daughter, Kat."

"It's nice to meet you all. You work here at the house?" she asked, and Rachel nodded. Natalya was quiet then, taking in everything carefully. She seemed surprised when Derek appeared on the stairs, an anxious look on his face.

"Hello, Natalya." He called down simply, and the pretty smile that had just moments ago been sliding across Natalya's face was gone.

"Hello." She answered quietly, watching as he came down and enveloped her in a brief and awkward hug. Rachel had returned to Alex's side.

"Where you expecting something… different?" Alex leaned over a whispered, and Rachel nodded.

"I was expecting… well, from the way that Derek and Nick were acting I was pretty much expecting her to have horns." Rachel replied in an equally hushed tone. There was another new arrival then, as Philip joined them. He was drying his hair with a towel, dressed in fresh clothes, but when he saw her his face lit up and he dropped the fabric on the carpet. Her face was a mirror of his excitement.

"Philip!" she cried, leaping over her duffel bag and launching herself into his arms. It was strange to see them, her arms and legs wrapped tightly around him and his hands clutching at wet leather. If it wasn't totally impossible one might have mistaken them for lovers. After a moment he put her down and she glanced around pointedly. Philip's smile faded, and he shrugged.

"He's around, I'm sure he'll find you when he's ready." He responded to her unasked question. Derek was still hovering nearby, clearly wanting to say something more. After a while he touched her arm, and she flinched instantly. Rachel watched the whole scene with interest, noting the pain that appeared in Derek's brow as she pulled away.

"Your old room is all set up for you. However, since you're going to be living and working here, I think maybe we should sit down at some point and talk for a bit." He managed to say, and her smile was back in a heartbeat. This time, though, it was a little too bright, and Rachel could tell that it was painted on.

"Oh, for sure… but not now, I'm totally lagged. I need to get a shower and a good night's sleep. Later, I'll find you." She promised, reaching down to pick up her bag and start up the stairs. Philip trailed after her, and the two talked excitedly. Derek and Kat were gone again almost instantly, leaving Rachel and Alex alone again in the foyer. Alex chuckled a little, and Rachel quickly joined in.

"That was the most bizarre thing I've ever seen happen in this house, and that's saying a lot." Rachel said, and Alex nodded in agreement.

"If we don't get to the bottom of this soon, I'm going to go crazy." Alex declared, following Rachel as they made their way to the kitchen. No one noticed the figure hidden in one of the nearby doorways, taking in the entire scene unnoticed. Nick felt like the ocean was roaring in his ears as he stood there, pretending as though Natalya's sudden appearance hadn't left him completely shaken. Eventually he turned and without changing his clothes, left for a very, very long run.

* * *

A/N: So yeah… introduction chapters are very awkward, pretty much always. It will get better from here, I swear. Basically, unless I mention something that happened in canon, it hasn't happened yet. I'm working from old episodes on chiller, the RBL poltergeist bible, and weirdly some fanfictions I've read that involve Philip spending time at the house in Derek's care when he was younger. There will probably be more for me to explain later, but I'm totally wiped out right now and want to update. Thanks for all the feedback so far, I sure do miss this show.


	4. chapter 3

( 3 )

It was like walking through a time warp. Nothing about the room had changed, right down to the books on the shelves. Someone had dusted and vacuumed regularly, but somehow it felt to Natalya as though at any moment her thirteen year old self would walk through the door and flop down on the bed. She dropped her bag by the desk and watched as Philip did just that, sinking low in the soft green comforter. He smiled up at her, picking up a one of the glittering barrettes off the nightstand and twirling it absently.

"Hasn't changed much in here." He commented quietly, watching as Natalya stepped over a box and ran her hand along the dresser. She picked up a bottle of perfume shaped like an apple and sniffed it. Making a face she laughed and put it back exactly where she'd found it.

"That's kind of what I was worried about." She replied, finally moving over to sit by his side on the bed. He stared at her quietly.

"Look, Talya… I know I haven't seen you in a while,"

"Since Christmas." She interrupted, then offered a quick apologetic smile. They'd spent a day together in London right before the holidays, but it seemed like a very long time ago.

"Right, since Christmas. But if you want to talk about this, being back and all that, you know that I'm here for you. I'm still holding out hope, I guess, that you're going to tell me what happened here someday." He told her. She lay back slowly, nodding her head.

"I know. Maybe I will, someday." She replied, and then sat back up quickly. Her face was completely devoid of the sadness it had been covered with just moments before, and a happy smile sprang to her eyes. "So tell me about the house members, Alex and the blonde. I've heard of Alex, but I don't know anything about Rachel or her daughter."

"Looking for gossip?" he asked with a knowing smile, and Natalya shrugged coyly.

"You know me too well." She answered, reaching into her bag and pulling out a pair of jeans and a clean tee shirt. She moved over to the bathroom, shooting him a glance and a smile as she left the room. "Keep talking, I can hear you. I just want to get out of these wet clothes."

"Well, you know that Alex was a student of your father's…" Philip began, and Natalya laughed shortly.

"Lucky her." She called out, and Philip sighed.

"Anyway, Rachel joined the house just a few years back. She's a doctor, a psychologist really, and Kat is her daughter." He finished, and Natalya reappeared from the bathroom. She had brushed her curling dark hair up into a loose bun and washed the eyeliner off her face. She gave Philip a hard stare that quickly dissolved into smile as she sat down at the nearby desk and started shifting through the drawers.

"You know I want dirt." She informed him. He held up his hands, defeated.

"Fine, fine. Rachel is the skeptic, always the last to believe whatever's happening. Alex is more… spiritual, and she has the sight." He said, and Natalya's head popped up.

"Is it strong?" she asked, and he nodded a little.

"Not as strong as Derek or Kat… or you, for that matter, but she's very gifted."

"Kat has the sight too?" she added. Philip nodded again.

"Yeah, though she doesn't talk about it as much as she did when she was younger, or so Nick tells me." He explained, stopping short when he realized what he said. Natalya pretended to be very engrossed with the papers, but Philip could see the way her shoulders drooped.

"Is he… good?" she asked, and Philip could only shrug.

"Good enough, I imagine. We don't talk as much as I would like, and in recent years he's become sort of a demon magnet so that's always a problem…" he trailed off. Natalya finally stuffed the papers back into the desk, a thoughtful look coming over her face. He wanted to reach out and touch her shoulder, but held back. He tried to smile, but it came off looking more pained than anything. "Don't worry, he'll come around. I think he will, anyway."

"Oh, _thanks_." She replied with a laugh, reaching out to slap his arm. He laughed too, before his face grew serious again.

"Even though I know you're going to be going crazy here, it's good to see you again. I'm glad you're back." He told her, and she smiled a little.

"That makes one of us."

* * *

Down in the library Rachel had finally tracked Derek down. He was sitting at the table, writing in his journal. When she entered he smiled a little, closing the book and leaning back. She returned his smile cautiously, taking the seat across from him at the table. She laid her hands flat on the table and he sighed deeply.

"Derek, we _really_ need to talk about this." She informed him, and he finally nodded.

"I know we do, it's going to be hard enough over the next couple of weeks without you and Alex thinking the worst of the situation." He finally conceded, and she was glad to see the haunted man from the other night was long gone. He seemed almost, happy.

"So tell me something. Something true, about what happened and why there's so much tension between the two of you. Tell me why she doesn't want to be here, and why Edmund is so keen on having her transferred." She asked, and he laughed a little.

"Anything else while I'm at it? Maybe explaining the meaning of life?" he joked, but he could tell from the look on her face she really wanted answers to all the questions she asked. "It's a long story…"

"I've got time." Rachel wasn't going to let him off that easy.

"All right. When Natalya was brought here she was very young and very fragile. She'd just lost her mother, and she didn't know me at all. I could tell immediately that she was very gifted psychically, which was to be expected I suppose. But I was totally unprepared to be a father to her. It took a lot of time, but eventually we grew closer. I got used to it, and after a while she was my world." He began, and Rachel nodded encouragingly. "Nick spent a lot of time here back then, he was just a few years older than she was and they became very close. The summer she turned thirteen was when Philip came to stay here, before he entered the Seminary. The three of them were inseparable, and I sometimes worried about the amount of time they spent together. But they both cared for her a great deal, so I allowed it. It was toward the end of that summer that something changed. I've spent years trying to understand exactly what happened, but all I can say was it was like she just snapped. For a while I thought it was hormonal, that I was unprepared for her to hit puberty, but I think it was more than that. Overnight she seemed to change, became sullen and withdrawn. She started smoking, drinking, sneaking out at night. Nick comes by his love of cars naturally, his father had a beautiful Porsche that she took one night and crashed into a tree. I didn't know what to do with her."

"So you sent her to Paris." Rachel provided, and Derek was quiet for a moment.

"I didn't know what else to do. She practically begged me to go, I could see she didn't want to live in San Francisco any more. I imagine that's why she's so upset to be sent back here, because all she wanted was to leave. I've tried to talk to her about it, bridge the gap there. I send letters sometimes, but they come back unanswered. I can tell she's angry with me, but I can't figure out why."

"Do you think it has something to do with the fact that she has the sight?" Rachel asked gently, and Derek could only shake his head.

"I'm not sure. I feel like there's more to her visions, that they're different from mine somehow, but every time I've asked her to talk about it she's refused. I can't figure out why Edmund wants her here, either, unless he's planning something."

"Like what?"

"I can't even imagine, but it's probably not good." Derek concluded, taking a sip of his nearby tea.

Neither Derek nor Rachel noticed the small figure moving out of the darkened doorway and out into the hall. Kat crept slowly away from the library, so busy mulling over what she'd overheard that she didn't notice Nick standing directly behind her. When she bumped into him she had to suppress the scream that welled up in her throat. He gave her a knowing smirk.

"Eavesdropping?" he offered quietly, and she felt her face get red. Not long ago she'd stopped asking Nick for piggy back rides and started noticing just how attractive he really was. She finally smiled back.

"Don't tell mom, okay?" she asked, tiptoeing away.

"My lips are sealed." He replied with a conspiratorial wink. He didn't mention that he'd been listening, too.

* * *

Kat left the library and went out to get some air. The rain had finally stopped falling and the night was balmy and damp. She made her way onto one of the balconies and was surprised to find someone had beaten her there. Natalya sat curled up on one of the chairs there, blowing smoke rings out into the darkness. She flicked the ash off her cigarette and smiled at the younger girl as she stopped short. She motioned for Kat to sit down.

"I don't bite, no matter what you heard." Natalya promised. Kat did as she was directed and sat down in the other chair.

"You have another of those?" Kat asked, motioning to the cigarette Natalya was dangling over the railing. Natalya smiled a little and suppressed a laugh.

"How old are you?" she asked, and Kat tried to shrug nonchalantly.

"Old enough." She replied, and Natalya couldn't hold back the tiny chuckle that managed to escape her lips. She fished around in her pocket all the same, handing Kat the pack and flicking her lighter to life. Kat took one between her fingers and pressed it to her lips, inhaling like she'd seen on TV and holding the end of the thing in the flame. She sucked in her breath and coughed immediately. She couldn't seem to stop coughing, her stomach twisting angrily as the smoke filled her lungs. Attempting to look suave she took a smaller drag and then placed the thing in Natalya's makeshift coke can ashtray.

"Smoking is bad for you." Natalya commented, stubbing out her own flame and sending the end off into the night.

"So is living." Kat countered, and Natalya finally turned to look at her.

"You're awfully young to be so disillusioned." Natalya replied, and then shrugged. "Who am I kidding, you're never too young."

"Is it true you have the sight?" Kat asked suddenly, and Natalya seemed taken aback by the forwardness of the question. Finally she nodded.

"I hear you do, too." Natalya answered, but Kat just shrugged.

"I guess. I don't think mine is right." She said. Natalya's face grew thoughtful.

"What do you mean?"

"I just think mine… is broken." She flinched suddenly, eyes flickering to the corner suddenly. Natalya's own eyes followed, and very slowly she reached down and slipped off the leather and stone bracelet that was tied around her wrist. She almost gagged at the grotesque face that glared at her from the corner of the balcony, hate burning clearly from a decayed face. She turned to Kat, whose face had gone completely pale.

"I think you should borrow this." Natalya told her, reaching out and slipping the bracelet over the smaller girl's hand.

"What is it?"

"A friend gave it to me. It's good luck." She explained, giving the hand a squeeze and standing up. "I'm going to go to bed. You and your mother are staying the night?"

"I'm on summer vacation now, so we'll probably be here a lot." Kat answered, following as Natalya led the way off the balcony.

"That's good. I get the feeling it's going to get kind of lonely around here."


	5. chapter 4

( 4 )

After his run Nick had made his way into the city, spending a few hours nursing a lukewarm beer at a local dive. Eventually he wound his way back to the house, praying the entire way that everyone had already gone to sleep when he returned. The big clock in the corner was chiming four a.m. when he finally arrived back in the library. He was hoping to do a little research on a case they were working on, a routine haunting at a local school. Taking a look at property histories was pretty basic stuff, but he was willing to try anything to take his mind off the thoughts spinning around painfully. He was just about to pass through the huge map on the wall when a sudden rustling overhead caught his attention. Without another thought he grabbed for a nearby poker from the fireplace and leaned back to see what the commotion was.

"Alex?" he ventured, and felt the air squeezing out of his lungs as a pale, heart shaped face peered down at him from the walkway above. Natalya was sitting cross-legged in a pile of books, a panicked look in her eyes that mirrored the terror in his own. He lowered the poker slowly, watching as she stood and dusted off the backs of her legs. She slipped a thin black notebook back onto the top shelf and turned back, gazing at him cautiously.

"Hi Nick." She finally managed, and his tongue felt swollen in his mouth. When he didn't say anything her eyes shifted quickly, shoulders drooping visibly as she struggled to collect up the books she had been nesting in. Her voice was cooler, now, with more of an edge. "I couldn't sleep; I always read when I can't sleep. I won't get in your way; I didn't want to come here any more than you want me here."

Nick could feel his mouth drop open the tiniest bit.

"Is that what you think?" he asked, voice sounding rough and unused. She finally looked up, and he fought the urge to scream. Instead he shook his head, pulling back his emotions carefully. "You left, Natalya, left after what I told you about my dad and about how I felt about you. You left and you didn't even say goodbye. You never called or wrote, never even told me why you went."

"It's complicated." She managed to interject, but Nick just laughed bitterly.

"Of course it is. I wouldn't expect anything less." His words caught her right in the ribcage. It felt like her lungs were collapsing. The look on her face made his throat hurt, and finally he couldn't stop himself. He bounded up the spiral staircase two at a time, finally coming to stand next to her. They were exactly the same height, and standing so close was making her nerves crackle. He managed to capture her gaze and held it, a mixture of anger and affection pouring out of his eyes. "All I ever wanted was for you to come back. I just didn't think seeing you again would hurt this badly."

He kissed her hard then, and could feel the surprise radiating from her lips. He was just as shocked as she was, and when he was finished he pulled away and turned abruptly. Her hand flew to her lips, watching as he ran back down the stairs. He barely paused at the door, glancing back for only moment.

"Nick…" she called, voice barely audible.

"I'm sorry." He whispered back, disappearing out the door and leaving her alone in the library again.

The next morning was bright despite the storm the night before, everything bathed in a deep green that only occurs after days of rain. Natalya was sitting alone in the kitchen, reading the comics and eating an enormous bowl of cereal that was busy turning the milk blue when Kat came crashing into the room. She took one look at Natalya and slipped into the chair across from her, face a mask of pure wonder.

"How'd you do it? How'd you know?" she asked, and Natalya just stared back at her.

"Do what?" she said mildly, taking another bite of cereal and handing Kat the part of the comics she was finished with. Kat took the paper, confused.

"You made it stop. I didn't dream once last night." Kat accused, and then seemed to notice that Natalya looked very, very tired. The older girl smiled a little, pushing Kat an empty bowl and the box of cereal.

"I told you. The bracelet is good luck." She stated simply, grabbing up another piece of the paper and laying it flat on the table in front of her. Kat reached down and felt the jewelry in question, still tied around her slim wrist. It seemed normal enough, just a thin piece of worn leather knotted with a rainbow of stones. There was something nice about it, though, and she enjoyed the weight of it on her skin. She tried to take it off but Natalya reached out a hand, barely looking up from her paper. "Hold on to it for me. It looks better on you."

Kat did as she was told, pouring herself a bowl of cereal and topping it with some of the nearby milk. That was how Philip found them when he made his way into the kitchen, seated across from one another, eating identical cereal and silently engrossed in their respective sections of the _Examiner_. He quietly poured himself a glass of orange juice, smiling as Natalya wrinkled her nose.

"Still not fond of juice?" he asked, and she stuck out her tongue in an exaggerated gagging gesture.

"Blech. It's like fruit blood." She replied, and Kat made a face too.

"I never thought of it like that…" Kat added, staring at her own juice accusingly. She jumped a moment later when Nick appeared, his abrupt entrance shaking her from her thoughts. She smiled at him, and he attempted a weary smile in return but it was clear his mind was elsewhere. Natalya was intently focused on her paper again, color rising swiftly in her pale cheeks.

"Mornin', Nick." Philip ventured, and Nick managed to nod in reply. He too poured a glass of the juice on the counter, and this time it was Kat making the face.

"Yuck, fruit vampire." She stated simply, and Natalya and Philip couldn't help but snicker. Nick smiled awkwardly, downing his juice and retreating back out the door. Natalya had pushed her bowl away and was after him instantly, startling both Kat and Philip who remained behind. When she caught up with him he was already nearing the foyer, and he slowed as he realized she was following.

"We need to talk." She called after him, and he stopped at a nearby door. Derek's voice rang out in the hall, with Rachel's voice answering strongly as they came closer to Nick and Natalya. Without thinking he reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her into the closet and slamming the door behind them. The closet was small, and they had to stand very close to fit. Derek and Rachel passed them by, and Natalya caught snippets of a conversation they were having about Kat's "behavior problems". She couldn't help but roll her eyes at that before she noticed Nick staring at her as her eyes adjusted to the lack of light. She glanced around, then back at him appraisingly. "This is… an interesting choice of venue."

"I really am sorry about last night. I shouldn't have kissed you like that." He told her, and if there had been room she would have stepped back. Since there wasn't she just closed her eyes.

"It's okay." She finally told him, attempting a smile that didn't come out quite right.

"No, it isn't. We were just teenagers, and I shouldn't be bringing up things that happened over a decade ago, when we were kids." He looked hopeful, and finally she managed a real enough looking smile.

"Well, we are going to have to be working together. It probably would help if we could carry on normally, professionally." She agreed.

"Professional is my middle name." he told her, holding out a hand for her to shake. "Friends?"

"Friends." She agreed, shaking his hand and ignoring the way her whole arm tingled when she did. When they were finished she flinched suddenly, eyes darting toward the only empty space in the whole closet. Her face lost a little color and her smile faded. She motioned to the door. "Can we get out of here? This closet is a little… creepy."

Nick nodded in agreement, pushing open the door and slamming it directly into Alex, who was quietly passing by. The three of them stood there, stunned for a moment.

"Nick? Natalya?" Alex said, and Nick's brain bubbled over the word to say to correct the situation. It was Natalya who smiled smoothly, pulling out a nearby extension cord and closing the door behind them.

"Thanks for helping me find this, Nick." She quipped, tilting her head toward Alex in a friendly way. "Who ever heard of a bathroom without electrical outlets?"

She was off down the hall then, down the stairs and out of sight. Nick shrugged at Alex's pointed look, disappearing in the opposite direction. Alex was left alone in the hallway with nothing but questions.

* * *

_Author's note:_

_Long time no update! I know this chapter seems like a lot of Nick silliness (I love Nick silliness… and shirtlessness… and so forth), but I've got to get this whole backstory thing established, so it's a struggle. Don't worry, though, the supernatural bits and the house drama are coming. If you're looking for a reference point for teenage Kat head on over to IMDB and check out Alexandra Purvis' head shots… she grew up GORGEOUS! Next chapter… more Derek, more drama, and of course, the beginnings of the creepiest love triangle in ptl fanfiction history._


	6. chapter 5

( 5 )

"It's like living with a stranger." Rachel said, sighing into her now lukewarm cup of tea. Derek, who had been listening intently, nodded slowly. Ever since Rachel had learned about Derek's issues with Natalya she felt as though she'd found a confidante, someone who understood what she was going through attempting to raise a psychically gifted child. Derek found an outlet for his thoughts about the past, even if he didn't say as much. "She mopes around the house, like just being in the same room with me is some kind of huge punishment. I can't tell you how grateful I am you're letting us stay here while school is out. I just don't feel comfortable leaving her alone."

"It's no trouble having her while you're gone during the day, she and Natalya have been getting along nicely." He told her, and Rachel's face darkened a little.

"Has Natalya come to talk to you, yet?" she managed to ask, though her mind was elsewhere. Derek shook his head, draining the contents of his own mug and standing up to put it in the sink.

"I don't know if I should expect her to. I have to admit I'm a little surprised at how much she's changed. When she left here years ago she was totally out of control, but from what I can see and the progress reports I received from Paris she's done quite well since then. She's so quiet around me, though, it's almost unnerving." Derek paused, and Rachel could only shrug.

"I don't see her doing much talking to anyone besides Philip, though there is some real tension between her and Nick." She offered, and Derek grew thoughtful.

"Tension?"

"Don't tell me you haven't noticed it… the little looks when they think no one's paying attention. Like they're unwilling to admit there's something there, or they think they're keeping it from everyone…" she trailed off, but Derek's brow only furrowed further.

"Are you sure? I hadn't noticed…" he said, and Rachel was nodding quickly.

"I admit I've been watching pretty closely, since you are right, Kat and Natalya have been getting along pretty well since she got here." She told him, concern evident in her voice. Derek offered her a rare full smile, and it sent an involuntary shiver down her spine.

"Don't worry, Rachel. We'll all keep an eye on Kat, and from what I can tell Natalya's really settled down." He replied, holding out his hand to help her up so they could each go to their room for the night. Rachel did say it, but she wasn't entirely dissuaded from her parental concerns regarding Kat and Natalya's friendship.

* * *

"What's this?" Kat asked, picking up a nearly destroyed CD case from Natalya's bookcase. It stood out from the others because the case was homemade, a Xeroxed picture of Captain America and the words _identity crisis_ scrawled across the front in angry print. Natalya looked up from the book she was reading and smiled a little.

"I was the lead singer in a band when I was your age. I was terrible, but all we did was a lot of angry screaming about the establishment and 'the man' so no one really noticed." She explained.

"Don't let her fool you. She wasn't _quite_ terrible. More of an awful, with just a hint of painful." Philip interjected, coming through the door dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a tee shirt. Natalya grinned at him and rolled her eyes. He took a seat at the desk, spinning the chair around the face the girls as Kat took the CD over to the dusty stereo and popped it in. It whirled to life with a giant crash and Natalya's voice screamed over the wailing guitar and pounding drums. It wasn't the prettiest thing Kat had ever heard, but it was definitely full of passion. Philip and Natalya were both covering their ears, so she pressed stop and smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry." She offered, but Natalya just waved a hand. She was closely focused on Philip, who was looking more than a little upset.

"You okay, P?" Natalya asked, and Philip attempted a weak smile.

"Just got some bad news, that's all. Do you remember Bishop McCreary?" he asked, and Natalya was as pale as a ghost in the space of a heartbeat. She nodded numbly, but Philip was oblivious and continued, "I've just received word that he's died unexpectedly, last night. It's hard to hear, he wasn't even that old…"

Natalya gripped the blankets underneath tight to prevent her hands from shaking and focused on taking deep breaths. Philip continued talking, about how the Bishop had been a good man and helped him when he entered the Seminary all those years ago, but to Natalya it was like the ocean was roaring in her ears. Kat was watching the situation closely. Years of hanging around grown ups who didn't want her to know what they were talking about had made her a keen observer and she could tell that everything was not as it seemed. When Philip was finished talking Natalya's face snapped into a huge smile. She feigned a yawn and stood up stretching.

"I'm totally wiped out; I think I'm going to get to sleep." She announced, and Philip looked a little confused at the sudden change of pace. Natalya was ushering the other two out the door before he even had time to process what had happened. When they were both gone Natalya sat down on her bed and cried until she fell into an uneasy sleep.

* * *

When Natalya woke up again the room was dark and cold. She tried to pull up the blankets, which she had failed to climb under, but stopped when she noticed a sudden movement across the room. Eyes formed first, and though she was used to hideous glares peering out at her from the dark this one made her heart stall. The apparitions she saw were different from those that her father and Alex sometimes saw. Her visions weren't like little commercial breaks; they were like three dimensional hammers to the face.

This was different, though, and she knew it. Her visions had never smelled before, and her whole room seemed to be bathed in an odor of death, like must and mold and earth. And they'd certainly never made noise, so the scratching was a little disturbing. It wasn't until she heard the voice that she really started to get upset.

_Hello little girl…_ the voice was croaking, dusty, and completely familiar. She thought she might throw up, but instead managed to open her mouth and scream until she was lightheaded. The house was big enough for no one to even hear her, but Nick's room was in the same hallway and he was naturally a light sleeper. He appeared almost instantly, snapping on the light and surveying the scene. Natalya was pressed against the headboard, face contorted in a mask of terror. He was across the room and by her side faster than she would have thought possible. The face was gone, and her room looked totally normal in the light. Even the smell was gone. She turned watering green eyes to Nick's and struggled to stop shaking.

"What happened? Are you okay?" he asked in a single breath, and Natalya was quiet for a long time. Finally she shook her head.

"It was a bad dream." She lied, and Nick just stared at her. The disbelief was evident on his face, but she managed a small smile. "Just a bad dream."

"Okay…" he replied, moving away awkwardly as he realized he was holding tightly to her arm. She reached out and snagged his hand, holding him in place. There was a funny look on her face, one he hadn't seen since she'd come back.

"Stay. Please." She asked simply, and he didn't even need to consider the request. He stood and clicked off the overhead light, leaving one of the small lamps in the corner on. She moved over to allow him room, and he crawled carefully under the blanket. When he was situated he tried to lie very still, but was surprised by Natalya's arm snaking around his stomach. She looked a little more peaceful then, lining her cheek up along with his shoulder and gripping his shirt at the stomach. Her voice got very quiet. "Night, Nick."

"Night, Taly." He echoed, placing a hand on her back and holding her a little closer. She eventually dozed off but he stayed awake, considering what was happening between them and what she'd really seen. Eventually he too slipped into sleep, vowing to solve those problems in the morning.

* * *

_Author's note:_

_I'm coming to realize this is going to be a LOOOOONG story! Not that I mind, the more time I spend playing around in this strangely moody Legacy house I've created the better. And it's true, it really isn't a Legacy fic if Nick isn't either brooding or getting the crap kicked out of him ;)_

_We're getting there, slowly but surely… oh! and thanks for the reviews, all... they really do keep me going._


	7. chapter 6

( 6 )

The next morning Nick had gotten up early and slipped out of the room, extremely embarrassed that he'd crossed such a clear boundary… again. Natalya hadn't stirred at all, and when he found her again with Kat at the breakfast table she acted as though nothing had happened. Grateful, he poured himself a cup of coffee and pushed up to sit on the counter as the girls devoured their lurid cereal. Rachel and Alex entered after, pouring their own coffees and taking seats at the table.

"How is the case coming?" he forced himself to ask, even though he really wasn't interested. Alex stretched sore muscles and smiled wearily at him.

"Not getting far, actually. The records for the property only go back about a hundred years, so I'm having problems there…" she started, but no one really seemed to be paying attention.

"What's that?" Rachel asked sharply, and everyone was momentarily startled. When she received nothing but blank stares she motioned to Kat's wrist, where the stone bracelet hung. It was shining prettily in the light, and Kat's face lit into a sudden smile.

"It's Talya's. She's letting me borrow it." She explained simply, going back to her cereal and automatically exchanging her section of the paper with Natalya's without looking up again. Rachel watched the whole scene carefully, but in the back of her mind a million images exploded. Kat drinking and smoking, crashing cars and lashing out in violent outbursts. She clenched her hands tightly around the coffee mug and made some quiet plans.

* * *

After breakfast Natalya was headed to the library to help Alex. Electronic records only dated back so far, but she was willing to bet the immense Legacy library had at least a few clues about the haunted property. Besides, she didn't feel like she'd done much work since she got to the house, with all the time she was spending trying to ignore her visions and the pained tension with Nick. She allowed herself a moment to long for Paris, late nights with Celeste and Marie poring over dusty books. The Paris library was even bigger than the San Francisco one, and she missed it desperately. It was these thoughts that distracted her as she walked, so when a hand reached out and dragged her into the closet she was caught totally unaware. After the door had closed and her eyes adjusted she realized Nick was only inches away and was glad it was dark to cover the color she knew was rising in her cheeks.

"We need to talk." Nick told her, and she just nodded. When neither of them said anything else they broke into simultaneous grins.

"Good talk." She commented, and in the very next moment she was pressed up against the wall, Nick's lips on hers and a coat hook digging into her back. Ignoring the pain she kissed him back, hands finding a hold on his taut stomach. This kiss was nothing like the first, hard and fast. This kiss unfolded, with twelve years of pain and longing. They pressed as close as they could together, and just when she was starting to get dizzy from the lack of air a scream echoed through the house. They broke apart slowly, painfully, and finally Natalya nodded toward the door.

They were down the hall after the screams, stopping when they got to the room Kat had been staying in. The girl was on the floor digging frantically through a pile of clothes. Nick surveyed the room quickly, and when he didn't find an actual threat he felt his muscles relax just a little. Natalya was on the floor then, too, pulling the younger girl back away from the mess she was creating.

"Kat, stop. What's wrong?" she asked, but Kat had already pulled away and resumed her search. Rachel and Derek appeared then, looking slightly sheepish, and when Rachel realized the situation she was pushing past Natalya and struggling to pull Kat to her feet. Natalya stood again, moving back to where Nick was standing. They watched as Kat continued to fight Rachel, who finally got her up on the bed.

"I took it off to take a shower and now it's gone!" she screamed, finally pulling away and diving toward the nightstand to continue her search.

"What's gone?" Nick finally spoke up, and Kat barely paused to answer.

"The bracelet. Talya's bracelet…" Philip arrived then, surveying the whole scene with wide eyes. Natalya didn't look angry about the missing bracelet, more worried. Rachel was the only one who didn't look all that concerned, and she wrapped an arm around her daughter.

"I'm sure it will turn up, honey, but in the meantime we can't be ripping apart the house trying to find it." She soothed, but the words had no effect on Kat. The young girl stood and walked out of the room, leaving the five adults in an uncomfortable silence. Finally Philip turned to Natalya.

"You've got cobwebs in your hair." He told her, and she reached up to hastily comb them out. Nick tried to smoothly rid his own hair of the offending webbing, but Philip's eyes flickered over him anyway. There was a split second of knowing recognition that passed between them and a new coolness in Philip's eyes that Rachel had never seen before. Natalya was shifting uncomfortably and Derek was watching the whole scene closely. Philip was the one who left first, without a word. Natalya followed close behind and Nick, looking perturbed, went third. Derek and Rachel were left alone, then.

"Are you going to tell Kat?" he finally asked, and Rachel bit her lip.

"I'm not sure. She didn't take it very well the last time she caught us kissing." She replied, sitting down on the bed. Derek smiled a little at the memory. "Are you going to tell Natalya?"

"In order to do that, I'd actually have to get her to talk to me." He told her, features softening thoughtfully.

"I'm sure she'll come around." Rachel declared, ignoring the gnawing guilt growing in her stomach.

* * *

When Natalya finally caught up with Philip he had made it all the way out to the garden. The afternoon had grown cloudy and a chill was blowing up the hill off the water. He didn't slow when he realized she was following him, and didn't stop until he reached a small gathering of trees. When he turned she could see the look in his eyes and her brow furrowed involuntarily.

"Philip…" she started, but he quickly interrupted her.

"Is that how it's going to be, then? You're back for less than a week and already you're shacking up with Nick?" he asked, voice dropping dangerously. This was someone Natalya hadn't seen in a long time. It wasn't Philip Callahan, parish priest. This was the Philip she knew a long time ago, a Philip who was passionate above all things.

"I'm not _shacking up_." She answered, indignation clear in her voice. "Why are you so angry, anyway? You like Nick; he's practically your brother…"

"Listen, I don't care what you do with your time, but I think it's really stupid to be mixing business with pleasure." He tried, but Natalya wasn't buying it.

"I'm sure that's it, you just think I should be more _professional_." She told him, tone dripping with venom. He looked like she had struck him, and she felt her anger fading. "What's this really about?"

"It doesn't matter, does it? Nick is free to do what he wants, and so are you…" the sadness in his voice was obvious, and in an instant they were on the same page. Natalya sighed, and it felt like her heart was on fire.

"Your work is important. You know that…" she tried, but he was already walking away. "That was a long time ago, anyway."

He stopped and stood very still, before turning and walking back. When he came to a stop he was dangerously close, face just inches from hers. He stared at her for a long time before he leaned in to whisper in her ear.

"I might be a priest now, and it might have been a long time ago… but feelings like that don't just go away." He told her, pushing past and making his way back to the house. She was left alone on the lawn, wondering what she was going to do next.

* * *

In his bed that night, Nick was dreaming. It wasn't a particularly important dream; he'd had it many times before. He was sitting on the couch down in the den, watching some old action movie, and suddenly Natalya was by his side. She told a joke, they laughed, snuggling close. It was so real; he could practically smell her shampoo. He fought to stay asleep as he woke, but eventually he opened his eyes to the moonlit darkness of his room. The body in the bed next to him turned over, pressing their face into the pillow under his head. He considered for a moment whether he should fight or not, but soon realized why he had been able to smell Natalya's shampoo. She awoke with a sigh, opening her eyes slowly and staring at him quietly.

"You okay?" he asked gently, and she nodded.

"Couldn't sleep." She told him, and he couldn't help but smile.

"I thought you always read when you couldn't sleep." he teased, and she shrugged.

"I do other things, too…" she offered, and without any further invitation he kissed her, more gently than any of the kisses that had come before. After a moment he pulled away.

"You didn't leave all those years ago because I told you I loved you, right?" he asked, and Natalya's eyes grew serious.

"No, Nick. I certainly didn't." she answered, kissing him again. As if on cue a scream interrupted their kiss. Despite the fact that someone was in obvious danger Natalya smiled at Nick's obvious annoyance as they got out of the bed and rushed up the stairs to one of the only rooms on the third floor. The door opened with some difficulty, and when they finally got inside they found Kat standing across the room, her hands over her face. She was still screaming, and the familiar smell of decay permeated the small space. Over near the window a figure loomed, and Nick immediately wished he'd brought his gun. Natalya had jumped across the bed and pulled Kat down into a protective crouch. Nick started across the room but found himself stuck in place. The figure materialized into a man, whose eyes glared angrily between Nick and the girls. This man was not the same that had visited Natalya, but it seemed the intent was the same. The man finally disappeared, and Kat stopped screaming. Natalya pulled her back up onto the bed, giving her a quick look.

"Are you okay?" she asked, and Kat nodded slowly. The younger girl was practically glued to her side as Nick flipped on the lights.

"The bracelet helped so much… I hadn't seen anything in days." Kat explained in a shaky voice, and Natalya nodded in understanding.

"Do you see that… thing often?" Nick asked, and Natalya and Kat both snapped a glance in his direction.

"You saw that?" Natalya finally asked, and Nick nodded. Natalya stood, a trouble look marring her usually smooth features. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think we need to talk to Da- to Derek about this."

"Just let me change first." Kat told them, grabbing a pair of jeans and moving toward the adjoining bathroom. Nick and Natalya were alone in the room again. Nick took a seat on the bed by her side, but his gaze was very far away.

"What's wrong?" she asked, slipping her hand into his. He turned, as though surprised she was sitting there.

"That thing… that thing was my father." He answered, and she could only nod.

"Yeah, I know it was." She said, giving his hand a quick squeeze. Unfortunately, she knew Nick's father was probably the least of their spiritual problems.

* * *

_a/n: meeep! long time no see! i know it's been an unforgivably long time since i posted, i've had most of this written for a while now but have been living mentally in another show (i'm disgustingly unfaithful, spending my time daydreaming about miguel ortiz on seaquest) so haven't had the drive to finish the chap. all the reviews you guys send are great, i can't thank you enough. and yeah... it's going to be THAT kind of fanfic. philip is too cute to be a priest._

_next time i think we'll see a little more alex... she cracks me up, seems like she's the only one in the house who ever actually works. oh, and we might eventually get kristin in there, even if i think she's probably the most blatant canonical mary sue i've ever seen. she probably won't get a fair shake, i find her pretty annoying.  
_


	8. chapter 7

( 7 )

It didn't take long for Kat to get dressed, though she did dawdle a little in the bathroom. Sure, she was scared. More scared, in fact, than she'd ever been before. But she wasn't sure which was more terrifying, the thought of facing her visions or telling her mother just how clear they had become over the years. When she rejoined Nick and Natalya in the bedroom she was surprised to find the two sitting on the bed together, side by side. When they saw her they flew apart like the wrong halves of magnets and she suppressed a laugh. Adults really thought she was clueless.

"I'm ready," she announced, wondering if it were really true. Natalya nodded, pulling herself up and leading the way out the door and down the hall. When they reached the library door there was a muffled cry, then a laugh, and the trio shared a curious look. In the end it was Nick who reached down and, against all their better judgment pushed it open without preamble.

"Ooops," Nick muttered, watching as Derek and Rachel stepped back from one another, the tangle of limbs becoming two separate people again. Rachel's eyes were everywhere at once, trying at all costs to avoid eye contact, and Derek leaned against the table sheepishly.

"Oh. Ew…" Natalya whispered, face getting very red. "I mean… no, ew, sorry. I can't even process that."

Kat's reaction was the strongest, though, as she reached out and pushed a priceless vase off its precarious stand. It smashed into the corner, pieces of glass flying everywhere. Rachel's face shifted to one of shock and horror.

"Katherine!" she admonished, but her reprimand lacked any power. She was caught and she knew it.

"What is this?" the small girl asked. Rachel didn't even know how to respond. "Is this why we've been staying here so much?"

"Kat, I know this is a little shocking for you, and we intended to tell you…" Derek tried, but Kat wasn't having any of it. She turned to leave, but Natalya caught her wrist. They shared a look, and Kat sighed, walking down the steps and slumping into a nearby chair.

"I know this whole Melrose Place revelation is really pressing, but I think there's something more important for us to deal with at the moment," Natalya reasoned, and Nick nodded in agreement. "Kat was just attacked, and I think the same… thing… attacked me the night before."

"Oh my God, Katherine! Are you okay?" Rachel was across the room in an instant, but Kat just pushed her hands away. Derek and Nick both took seats at the table, and in some twisted alternative universe it might have resembled a normal Legacy meeting. No one wanted to look at one another, though, and the tension only increased when a tired looking Philip appeared in the doorway.

"What's all the noise about?" he asked, and Alex appeared at his shoulder.

"We've had some… activity, tonight," Derek told him, and Nick and Natalya both looked as though they were barely containing their laughter.

"Something's been attacking us, at night. It came after Kat tonight and me the night before," Natalya added, and Alex looked perplexed.

"What exactly do you mean by _something_?" she asked, and Natalya looked to Nick for guidance. His eyes were very far away, his features drawn tight.

"It was my father. The thing in Kat's room was my father," he announced, and everyone in the room reacted with surprise. Natalya fought the urge to touch his shoulder and instead crossed the room and took her own seat in one of the armchairs. Kat was back on her feet, agitation clearly growing. Finally she crossed to where Natalya was sitting and stared at her imploringly.

"Can't you get another bracelet? This is all because I lost it, but I swear I only took it off to shower…" she pleaded, but Natalya just shook her head.

"How can this all be because of some stupid bracelet?" Rachel finally spoke up, and the anger in her eyes was clear.

"It was a gift, from an old friend. It was… charmed, like a protective talisman. It kept away dark energies," Natalya explained, and Rachel was already scoffing.

"Oh yes, and it's because Kat isn't wearing that bracelet that the boogey man came after her tonight," she announced with a laugh, but Kat had fixed her with a dark look that stilled her amusement.

"That bracelet was the only thing keeping me safe," Kat continued to argue, and by then Rachel had tired of taking a hands off approach. She was on her feet and across the room, grabbing up her daughter and nearly shaking her.

"Safe from what? Katherine, I need you to tell me what it is that you think is after you, and how long it's been this way," she cried, and Kat's face flickered between terror and a stony chill. Finally she shook her mother off and moved far across the room. Rachel followed, voice softening finally. "You can tell me, I won't be angry. I just want you to be safe."

"I can't tell you anything!" Kat's voice was instantly shrill as she pulled away again, sinking further inside herself. "Every time I tell you something about what happens to me, the things I see, you freak out. You threaten to pack us up, move us away, as if that would stop any of this from happening! This is our home, mom, and these people are our family."

The rest of the Legacy members seemed to still instantly at Kat's words. They all felt the same way she did, but had various reasons for not voicing them. Philip's eyes flickered to the table, unwilling to look at anyone, and Alex stepped forward to wrap an arm around Kat. Finally calming, she allowed Alex to lead her back to the table and sit. Rachel was silent, staring as her daughter was led back to join the group.

"Katherine, your mother is right. If you're in danger, we need to know about it. It's the only way we can protect you," Derek announced, after having been silent through the entire argument. Kat laughed a little, in a short and unamused way.

"Sure, you would take her side, now that you two are joined at the tonsils," she muttered, and Alex bristled visibly. It was the picture of avoidance, everyone looking in a different direction and no one wanting to be the first to speak. Finally, Natalya heaved a sigh.

"I see things haven't changed much around here," she murmured, and Nick could barely contain the smile that sprang to his lips. He'd missed her random commentary, despite his best efforts. She sat forward and gave Kat a pointed glance, which Kat simply returned. Finally Natalya turned to the group, tugging thoughtfully on a long dark curl. "Kat's visions are different from yours and Alex's," she began, looking her father in the eye for the first time since she'd returned to the house. He fell back a little, stunned by her sudden attention. "She still knows things without _knowing_ them, but when she sees something specific it isn't like watching TV. It's more… interactive, like 3-D TV. Like one of those rides at Disneyland."

"How do you know all that?" Alex asked, and Rachel was suddenly standing at her back.

"You've known her for less than a week!" Rachel added, and Natalya seemed to pause.

"I know…" Natalya said, thinking hard for just a moment about whether or not she wanted to reveal one of her biggest secrets. In the end, she closed her fists around the corners of the table and shut her eyes. "…because my visions are just the same."

* * *

a/n: _Did you think I forgot about this story? Well, honestly, I did a little. The plotbunny left me by the side of the road, and I wasn't sure what would happen. So, we get a filler chapter! Still, it helped me get the ball rolling again, so we might get a full story out of this thing! Wish me luck… oh, and sorry for the craptacular filler-osity of this and the next…!!_


	9. chapter 8

( 8 )

"Let me see if I've got this correct," Alex began, trying to piece together the parts of the puzzle, "You and Kat see visions of spirits, only they aren't visions?"

"Kind of," Kat spoke up, for the first time in nearly five minutes. She was still sitting at the table, tapping a chess piece on the wood and flipping it around in her fingers. When everyone turned look at her, she shrugged, and Natalya picked up where she'd left off.

"It's almost like there's someone else in the room, like a real person only you know they're not there. Usually it's just an image, but the other night it felt like more than that. More real, I guess, more dangerous." Natalya had moved over to the window seat, pulling her knees up under the worn out sweatshirt she was wearing. Nick thought it looked familiar, but he wasn't going to say as much.

"I could smell them in the room," Kat added, and Natalya nodded in agreement. Derek looked perplexed, and Alex was busy flipping through a pile of old Legacy journals.

"This all sounds so familiar, like I've read about it before," she mumbled, but Rachel had greater concerns.

"How long have you both been… seeing, these things?" she asked, testing the way the words felt. She wasn't ready to admit there might actually be something going on, but knew her daughter well enough to know this wasn't going to just go away. The girls didn't look at each other, but managed simultaneous answers.

"Always," Kat attested.

"For as long as I can remember," Natalya said.

Everyone else looked up then, startled by the union of voices. Philip seemed to finally be waking up, and rubbed a hand across his face.

"Why didn't you ever tell us?" he asked, and the girls exchanged a look. Philip sighed, "Either of you. Natalya, I've known you since you were thirteen, and you're just now mentioning this?"

"It's not that simple," Natalya answered slowly, but the guilt on her face was clear. Kat pushed the chess piece away and watched as it spun in the center of the table.

"You wouldn't have believed me anyway," she said to no one in particular, but Derek's mind was elsewhere.

"Is that why you left?" he asked, before he could stop himself. Natalya looked up sharply.

"What?"

"Your visions. Are they the reason you moved to Paris?" He was on his feet then, circling around to stand in front of her. She couldn't help but utter a short laugh, which she quickly stifled.

"No, that's not why," she told him quietly, and he seemed a little deflated at her answer.

"We're getting off track here," Nick interrupted, even though he more than anyone wanted to know the answers to the mystery surrounding Natalya's departure. Natalya nodded emphatically, glad to get off the topic.

"Nick's right. I don't want to wake up with anyone's dead father in my face. If we could do something about this before it's time for bed again, I'd be pretty psyched," she told them, and Alex nodded in agreement.

"I'm going to keep looking through these journals. I'm sure I've read something that sounds like what you two are describing. Don't worry, we'll take care of this," she promised.

"It's only going to get worse," a voice announced, causing every single person in the room to jump. Sir Edmund Tremaine stood in the doorway of the library, a beautiful blonde just behind him.

"Edmund, how did you get in here?" Derek asked, and the phone by his side sang out in a mocking tone. He picked up the receiver and listened as Dominick chirped an announcement that Edmund and a guest had arrived at the house.

"You knew this would happen," Natalya announced out of the blue, and Edmund's face quirked into a tiny smile, "That's why you sent me here."

"Charmingly paranoid as always, Natalya," he said, stepping down into room. The blonde followed after him, lowering her hood and surveying the scene with clinical blue eyes. "I suspected something like this might happen, with so much psychic energy coming together in one house."

"If you knew it would happen, why would you send her here?" Rachel finally asked, after having been silent for the majority of the conversation. Her fists clenched by her sides she stood, walking directly up Edmund and glaring daggers at him. "Everything was fine until you sent her here. Now all hell's broken loose, and you _knew_ it was going to happen?"

Natalya shrunk at her words. She hadn't wanted to come, but now that she was there she had been starting to feel at home again, if even just a little bit. The psychiatrist's harsh comments fell heavily on her.

"Your house members don't listen very well, do they Derek?" Edmund commented with a low chuckle. "I said I _suspected_ something like this might happen. This house has become a beacon, drawing in souls from all over. Surely you can feel it?"

Derek considered for a moment, as did Alex, and they shared a look. Alex nodded a little, and Derek sighed.

"And I suppose you and your friend are here to help us turn this beacon off?" he asked, and Edmund bowed his head just a little. He held a hand out to the blonde, who took it and stepped down.

"Pardon my rudeness; I haven't even introduced my companion. I'd like you all to meet Kristin Adams, my protégé," he announced, and she regarded them all with a slight nod.

"I'm looking forward to working with all of you, Edmund has told me so much about you," she purred, and Nick settled into the window seat next to Natalya. She leaned toward him, watching as Miss Adams shook hands with the various house members.

"Vampire?" she whispered, and he bumped her with his shoulder.

"Barbie-bot," he corrected, and they laughed together quietly. It was nice, Natalya thought, that some things never did change.

* * *

a/n: _Soooo… somehow I deleted "a traitor among us", which is where I was getting my Edmund-spiration. So his characterization might be off for a while, it happens. Also, I've decided to introduce Kristin, but make her more like Edmund's lackey, because, well, I can't stand her. She seems like she'd be a suck up in the right situation anyway, and I could just see Edmund poaching her from Boston, while she thought it was a giant honor to work under the head of London. Anyway, better things to come, like possession and… uhm… secrets revealed? Sounds good to me…_


	10. chapter 9

( 10 )

No one got much sleep that night. Derek had Dominick make up rooms for the unexpected guests, and everyone tried to retire to their beds. In the end, though, both Kat and Natalya ended up curled in Nick's bed, the three of them sandwiched together like rib bones. When the sun began to peek through the shades Nick felt as though the worst was over and crept out of the room, stopping to take a quick shower and pull on jeans and a clean tee shirt. He wandered down to the kitchen, poured himself a cup of coffee, and made his way into the library. It looked like a bomb went off. Alex was in exactly the same place, a growing pile of Legacy journals on the table to her right. She looked weary, but determined, and Nick chuckled. He reached down and slid the coffee across the table toward her.

"You look like you need this more than I do," he told her, and she accepted his gift gratefully. He took a seat by her side and she shook her head with frustration.

"This is driving me crazy. I know I've read about exactly what we're looking for, in one of these journals, but I can't seem to find it again!" she cried, head falling forward and face obscured by dark curls.

"Maybe you should take a rest. Have you been at this all night?" he asked, and she nodded a little.

"Yeah, but what I'm doing is nothing compared to what's going on next door," she explained, motioning toward the map on the wall. He raised an eyebrow, and she chuckled. "Go see for yourself."

He stood and did as she offered, walking toward the wall and pausing only a moment for the retinal scan. A melodious voice rose to meet him as he stepped through the shimmering barrier.

"I already said I didn't require any assistance, only quiet," it demanded, and Nick was surprised to see Kristin sitting at the command console, with no fewer than fifteen different windows open on the big screen. The information ranged from histories of the house properties to psychiatric workups of the members, much of it classified.

"Making yourself at home, I see," Nick commented, and her eyes flickered over him with mild interest.

"Edmund has granted me full access to your facilities, as well as the information in your databanks," she told him, clearly meaning it as a kind of explanation.

"Last I checked," Nick began, barely able to keep his animosity contained, "Derek was the precept here. Did you happen to ask him?"

"Do you really think Derek's word outweighs Edmund's?" she asked with a short laugh, and Nick was starting to realize this was a fight he wasn't going to win. Still, that had never stopped him from trying in the past…

"I'm surprised you signed up to be his lackey. I've read about you in some of the case files, and you never seemed fit for a goon squad," he told her sharply, and her gaze could cut glass.

"I'm surprised you have time for reading, what with all the time you spend breaking rules and getting the crap kicked out of you. You're not the only one who did their homework, Nicholas," she said, flipping through a few windows and pulling up one with his face on it. He paled immediately, because even from where he was standing he could read his deepest secrets.

"Do not call me that," he growled, marching up and flipping the circuit breaker. The whole room hummed as it dimmed, then came back to life. The computers restarted, and all of Kristin's work was gone. Her face hardened into a tight scowl as he turned and left, without waiting to hear what she might say.

* * *

Natalya woke that morning with her arms clutching at blankets where Nick had been laying and Kat's arms wrapped tightly around her waist. The alarm clock on the nightstand said it was nearly eleven, and she couldn't believe she'd managed to sleep so late. She shrugged out of Kat's arms and started toward her own room, eager to get into some clean clothes and start her own research. She knew she had information that was important, even if she couldn't share it with a soul. On the way she passed Philip's room, where he was busy sorting through a suitcase full of books. Natalya couldn't stop herself from laughing at the scene.

"Do you have to buy an extra ticket for your books?" she joked, leaning against his doorframe. He regarded her with a small smile.

"Very funny. I wondered where that went," he replied, motioning toward her sweatshirt. She held it out from her body and looked down. It was an ancient garment, falling to her knees and frayed at the edges. The gray fabric was adorned with peeled blue writing, words that she'd never been able to make out.

"This thing? I've had this forever. I can't even remember where I got it, I can't read the words," she answered, and he took a step forward

"_San Francisco Youth Soccer League,_" he read, tracing the words across her stomach with a gentle finger. The corners of her mouth turned up just a little and she shook her head.

"I guess I should have known, I was always stealing your clothes when you weren't looking," she admitted. He laughed first, then grew slightly serious.

"Talya, we need to talk," he told her, taking her arm and drawing her into the room. She followed cautiously, not sure she wanted to discuss what she was sure he wanted to know. She took a seat on his bed and he moved to lean against the dresser. No one said a word.

"Well, this is useful," she finally quipped after they had sat in silence for nearly five minutes.

"What else haven't you told me?" he asked suddenly, and her eyes were closed in an instant.

"What do you mean?"

"You didn't tell me about your visions, which seems pretty strange. I get the feeling there's something else you're keeping from me. From everyone, really," he explained, and she just shrugged.

"Don't know what you mean," she lied. Philip sighed.

"Fine. Then let's talk about yesterday," he offered. Now it was his turn to close his eyes. "I didn't mean to come across so… jealous. I know it's not my place. It's just hard. It's been twelve years since I've seen you with him, and I didn't think it would stir up such memories. When you left the last time…"

"Stop," she pleaded.

"…you made your choice. And that's fine. It drastically changed the direction of my life, and I'm happy with the way things turn out. It's just sometimes, I look at you, and I'm sixteen years old again. Especially here, with Nick and Derek and this house."

"Philip, stop," she commanded, and he actually stilled. She was on her feet then, pushing toward the door. "Sometimes I think that things could have turned out differently. But they didn't. You're a still a priest, and I'm still a disaster. Let's just leave it at that, okay?"

She was out into the hallway before he could respond, but didn't get far before the choking smell of death engulfed her. She heard him calling after her, but didn't get a chance to scream before something hard hit her in the head and she slumped to the carpet, voices whispering dark threats into her fading ears.

* * *

a/n: _blasting through chapters like cookies..._


	11. chapter ten

( 10 )

After his run-in with Kristin, Nick had retreated to the relative safety of the library, where he'd helped Alex with her research until she fell asleep; head slumped on a pile of books. He'd continued reading, eventually coming across some familiar handwriting. He opened the cover cautiously, observing his own scrawled words on the page. Thumbing through a few entries about midterms and a crush he'd had on his math teacher, he came to the date he had been searching for:

_Talya crashed my dad's car. I was out for a run when I found her, she didn't get very far in the thing. She doesn't even have her permit, and the last time I tried to teach her to drive stick we nearly ended up in the bay. I can't figure out why she took it in the first place. It's wrecked, a total loss, and I'm pretty sure that when my dad gets back from his trip someone's head will roll._

_At first I thought she was freaked out about the crash, she was pretty banged up, but when I tried to take her back to the house he begged me to just walk with her. Said she didn't care where we went, as long as it wasn't to that house. I think she would have followed me anywhere._

The entry stopped there, but Nick's memories continued on. They'd walked all the way down to the water, and she'd started to cry. He'd told her not to worry about the car, that his dad was a prick who beat up on him and his mom, and he deserved it. Then, with all the confidence a fifteen-year-old boy could muster, he'd told her he was in love with her. She'd only cried harder, which he didn't think was a good sign.

He hadn't written any of that down. Leaving a paper trail meant people could pin you down, prove things you would rather keep a secret. Once he started thinking about that night he couldn't stop, the sharp details coming back in waves.

It had been raining, and she'd been wearing a yellow dress. Even with a bruise on her cheek and a cut over her eye, he'd thought she looked beautiful. Something about it felt strange, though, now that he was thinking about it. He realized after a while it was because he still didn't know why she'd taken the car in the first place. He was busy forming various hypotheses when Philip came bursting through the door, an unconscious Natalya cradled in his arms.

"What happened?" Nick asked, panic lacing his voice. Pushing the journals to the side he managed to make space for her on the table and wake up Alex at the same time. After rubbing the sleep from her eyes Alex was shrugging off her sweater to use as a pillow.

"I found her in the hallway, passed out. She's got a bad bump on her head, and it's bleeding. She hasn't come back around since I found her," Philip told them, pulling away the tee shirt he'd grabbed from where he'd pressed it to stop the flow of blood. Kristin was drawn from the control room by the commotion. She reached out coolly to check Natalya's pulse, and Nick fought the urge to slap her hand away.

"Why didn't you put her in a bed?" she asked, and was met with three blank stares. When someone got hurt in the house, you brought them to the library. That was just how it worked. Alex was the first to come to her senses.

"I'll go get Rachel," she announced, taking a single step toward the door. She didn't get further than that before Natalya sat up with a groan, hand flying to her head. When her hand came back down it was flecked with blood, and she groaned loudly.

"What the hell…" she muttered, nearly falling back down again. Nick was behind her in a heartbeat, giving her a shoulder to lean against.

"Are you okay? What happened to you?" Alex asked, picking Philip's tee shirt back up and pressing it against the wound. Natalya shrugged, taking the shirt from Alex and holding it to her own head.

"I was walking to my room to get dressed, and all of a sudden the lights were going out. Then I woke up here," she finished, and Kristin laughed a little too loud.

"You probably just passed out. Maybe you should eat a sandwich," Kristin suggested, and Natalya was sitting up a little straighter.

"Maybe you should eat a…" she started to say, but Nick was pulling her back toward him.

"Alex, why don't you go and get Rachel anyway. She might have a concussion," he suggested, interrupting Natalya's vulgar response. Natalya was already pulling away, struggling to stand up.

"I'm fine, really. Look, the bleeding has stopped," she offered, pulling back the compress and touching her fingers to her forehead tenderly. She managed to get to her feet, stumbling just a little, and moved away from the table. "I'm just… tired. I'm going to go take a nap."

"And if you do have a concussion it will be the longest nap of your life," Kristin added before she could stop herself, and received piercing glares from everyone in the room.

"Just let Rachel take a look at you before you go. It would make me feel a lot better," Philip pleaded, and finally Natalya agreed, following as he led her out of the room. Alex rubbed the back of her neck, stretching sore muscles gingerly.

"Did I fall asleep?" she asked, and Nick nodded absently, watching as Natalya and Philip retreated from the room.

"You looked peaceful, so I let you stay where you were," he explained, and was met with incredulous stares from both Alex and Kristin.

"I looked peaceful sleeping in a wooden dining chair, with my face pressed into an open book?" she wondered, and Nick could only shrug. Kristin was laughing again as she turned to head back into the control room.

"And I thought the members of the Boston house were strange…" she muttered, disappearing from the room. Her laughter could still be heard in the library, and a sharp look passed between Nick and Alex. It certainly was turning into a full house.

* * *

After Rachel had checked her out Natalya had practically ran back to her room, claiming exhaustion. Philip stayed behind in the kitchen, watching as Rachel scribbled notes in the margin of the textbook she was reading. He suspected it was busy work, anything to keep her mind off the fact that something evil was after her daughter, again, and that she was virtually powerless to stop it, again. Finally she looked up at him, eyebrows rising expectantly.

"What?" she asked, voice a little sharper than she had intended. He watched her carefully, then took a seat at the table across from her.

"You don't seem to like Natalya very much. Why is that?" he posed. She blinked at him several times, surprised by the forwardness of his question. His emotions from the day before hadn't worn off, making him a little bolder than he would usually have been. After a while the shock faded and she shook her head.

"It's not like that at all. I just don't know her very well," she answered, but Philip wasn't convinced. He gave her a pointed look, which made her sigh loudly. "I'm just not sure she's the best influence on my daughter, okay? Kat's already been having behavior issues, and now Natalya shows up here… I don't know, I just see so much of Kat in Natalya, and from what I've heard things didn't turn out all that well for her here."

"Natalya and Kat are totally different. When Natalya was Kat's age she'd already gone through a lot," Philip tried to tell her, and Rachel laughed shortly.

"You mean things like the unexpected death of a parent? Or maybe seeing strong visions that no one else can see? Things like that?" she asked sarcastically. Philip's wheels were spinning, trying to think of the best way to describe the difference.

"I can't explain it to you, but I've known Natalya for a very long time, and I can tell you that it's just not the same. I don't know how, but it isn't," he told her, pushing himself up from the table and turning toward the window.

"Well, as comforting as that is, Philip, until you can give me a concrete reason as to why I shouldn't expect Kat to be stealing Nick's car and crashing it into a telephone pole, I'm going to do my best to keep some distance between them," she finished, closing her book and beating a hasty retreat. Philip lingered a while, and soon decided that he wanted the answer to the question as much as anyone. He just had no idea how he was going to make that happen.

* * *

_a/n: i've been sitting on this chapter for a while because, well, i think it's crap. i want to get to the good stuff, but i'm a bit blocked out just now._

_as to my kristin hate... it's true, she grew on me, but i hated the way she was introduced. i actually think i remember derek asking in that first episode "is there anything you're not good at?". i mean, REALLY? ::gag::_

_anyway, almost everyone will be redeemed. next chapter might make you momentarily freaked out, but no worries, good things to come. and ooops, messed up chap numbers. better now.  
_


	12. chapter eleven

( 11 )

As the sun went down, Nick checked on Natalya. A half hour later, he checked again. By the third and fourth time he was starting to feel powerless, and soon decided that he needed to get out of the house. As he made his way down the front stairs toward the door he heard a rustling below. Peering over he stopped, and found himself gazing into an upturned face. It took him a few seconds but he finally recognized the features staring back at him as Kat.

He could barely believe the transformation. The resemblance was uncanny; it was like staring into a replication of Natalya at age thirteen. Nick wondered briefly if maybe Kat had found a picture and copied the look; smudged black eye shadow, red lips, crimped hair. But most startling of all was the wicked little smile, daring yet sweet, curving on her lips.

"Hey, Nick. Going out?" she asked, twisting around the banister and coming to a stop before him. He nodded a little, and her smile grew.

"Where's your mom?" he asked, and a shadow passed over her face.

"Probably getting horizontal with Derek," she announced, and he couldn't stop the laugh that burst free.

"Getting horizontal? Where did you hear that?"

"I'm almost fourteen, I'm not a kid anymore," she told him with a scowl, a dark look that all but disappeared a moment later when she began to trail him toward the door. Before he reached the front of the foyer she was standing in front of him, blocking his path. He tried to go around her, but she stepped to the side. "Take me with you?"

There was something in her eyes that made him a little uncomfortable. He pushed the idea away, she was his _Kitty Kat_ after all, and he was nothing more than a playmate and purveyor of piggy-back rides. She seemed to notice his discomfort and stepped back a little, face falling into a sullen frown.

"I don't think your mom would want you leaving the house just now. Besides, I'm just going for a walk down the launch and back…" he tried, but she just tilted her head to the side.

"Please, Nick? It's important, want to talk to someone and I need to get out of here for a little while, it's like the walls are closing in on me," she told him, and he was surprised by how adult the sentiment was. He knew all too well what it felt like to be trapped in the house. Finally he sighed, motioning toward the kitchen.

"Go tell your mother where you're going, and get a coat," he ordered, and she skipped out of the room immediately. She was only gone a few moments before she came bursting back in, running behind and all but pushing him out the door. He laughed a little at her enthusiasm, and they walked in an amicable silence until the house was out of sight. The night was cool but dry, the rain managing to hold off for at least a day, and finally they reached the water. Nick found a seat on one of the big rocks nearby, and Kat slipped off her shoes and waded in a little. After a while she turned to him, and he knew she was going to say something important.

"I have something I want to tell you," she explained seriously, and he tried to train his features to a neutral mask. If there was one thing he knew about teenage girls and confessions it was that you definitely didn't want to lead them on. "You have to promise to let me say all of it, without interrupting.

"Go ahead," he prompted, and she sighed loudly.

"Okay, so I've known you since I was eight," she began, tugging her jacket down tighter around her small body, "and when I was a kid I just thought you were the coolest guy ever. But I'm older now…"

"Maybe you should just stop there," Nick suggested.

"And I think I'm in love with you," Kat said at the very same moment. Even in the dark he could see her face was bright pink, and she was scowling at his interruption. "You promised!" she cried, and he just held up his hands. She waited a moment to see if he was going to let her finish, and when he was quiet she took a deep breath and continued. "I think it's important to tell you, because I'm starting to figure out that the truth is better than a lie. I'm probably always going to love you. But I think friends are important, and I know that Talya loves you, too. You guys might be in denial, or whatever, but I know it's true. Psychic, remember?" she tapped a finger on her temple for emphasis and Nick smiled as he ducked his head.

"I think you're more mature than your mother gives you credit for," he told her, which caused her to snort loudly and roll her eyes.

"Duh," she answered, kicking a spray of icy water in his direction. Nick could only smile and think that things might not be as bad as he first imagined.

* * *

It wasn't until the sun went down that Natalya realized she wasn't alone in her bedroom. She wasn't scared, like before, because instead of the smell of burning decay the air was perfumed with something sweet, like the roses that used to grow under her window in the summertime. She sat up anyway, clutching at the blanket as her eyes darted around the room.

"Who's there?" she called out, voice sounding far more timid than she had intended. Instead of an answer there came a gentle humming, like a lullaby, which soon morphed into a song. She struggled to make out the words, clinging to each sound, but it was just soft enough that it always escaped her. For some reason she found herself slipping back, head hitting the pillow as everything turned black.

* * *

Alex was starting to really feel the kinks in her neck when a sudden noise at her back made her jump and fall forward. Natalya had appeared out of nowhere, dressed only in a long tee shirt and boxer shorts. Her bare toes dug into the carpet and she smiled sleepily at Alex, who was still struggling to catch her breath.

"Natalya! You scared me," she announced, not quite noticing the far away look in the younger girl's eyes.

"You," Natalya began, moving a stack of papers to sit down, "are seriously dedicated to these journals. Have you taken a break yet?"

"Sort of," Alex answered with a sigh, closing one book and opening another. "I mean, if you count falling asleep at this table…"

"I don't," Natalya replied with authority, reaching out a hand to yank the other woman out of her chair. "What you need, Lexie, is a drink."

"Did you just call me Lexie…?" Alex asked, but was interrupted by Natalya's suddenly effervescent voice.

"I know the perfect one. Nothing makes a night of boring reading fly by like my friends Jack and José," she said, moving them into the kitchen to stop at the bar.

"Oh, tequila and I don't really get along," Alex told her, but Natalya was already pouring it.

"You won't even taste it. All you'll taste is cherries and coke," she promised, and something about the description of the drink jogged something in Alex's memory.

"That sounds like a drink Julia used to make, it had tequila, rum, and whiskey, with coke, cherries, and grenadine. She called it…"

"_A San Francisco Iced Tea_. You've heard of it then…" Natalya interrupted with a grin. Alex nodded, accepting the drink Natalya handed her and taking a tentative sip. A strangely peaceful feeling settled over her, and she found herself smiling for no reason. Natalya finished mixing her own drink, then turned to raise her glass. "A toast, maybe?"

"What are we toasting to?" Alex wondered aloud, and they both thought for a moment.

"How about… to the pursuit of knowledge through tedious research?" Natalya suggested, and Alex laughed loudly.

"To tedious research," she agreed, wondering why she'd ever had reservations about Natalya.

* * *

_A/N: i know, Kat, creepy, right? i decided long ago that when she got old enough she'd develop a real serious crush on nick. can you blame her? didn't feel like going too far in that direction, though, so let's get back on track. a few more chapters, think three, before we learn natalya's secret. keep with me, the plotbunny is being VERY uncooperative._


	13. chapter twelve

( 12 )

It was nearly two hours later when Nick and Kat arrived back at the house. Kat snuck off to bed, trying diligently to avoid a run in with her mother, and Nick followed the smell of sizzling hamburger meat into the kitchen. An old Beatles song was blasting out of the stereo on the counter, with the slurred voices of Alex and Natalya following along faithfully. Nothing could have prepared him for the scene in that kitchen.

Sometime during the evening both girls had changed into flowing sun dresses and it appeared that after a few drinks had tried to do each other's makeup. Alex was standing on the chair, wine glass in hand, dancing wildly, and Natalya stood by the stove waving a spatula to the beat.

"What the hell happened here?" he asked, and the girls both spun toward him. Natalya nearly threw her spatula with excitement as Alex launched toward him, wrapping him in a messy hug.

"Nick, you're back!" Alex announced, taking a sip of her drink and sliding into one of the nearby chairs. Nick surveyed the scene carefully, only to be nearly toppled as Natalya took her turn hugging him. He nearly laughed as he caught sight of what Alex had done to her face, but refrained and instead reached out a hand to brush away most of the errant eyeliner with a rough thumb. She hung on a moment longer than was normal, and Nick took a quick glance at Alex to see if the other woman noticed. Alex was engrossed with something at the bottom of her glass and paid no attention to them.

"I repeat, what the hell happened? What is _this_?" he asked, stepping around Natalya to snap the burner off. The meat was charring into an unappetizing lump in the pan, and Natalya just shrugged casually.

"Tacos and tequila, just like the song…" she told him, and Alex nearly fell back out of her seat laughing.

"What song?" Nick found himself asking, even though he was pretty sure he didn't want to know. Each girl began crooning out a different song, much to their great amusement, and it was then that he discovered the empty tequila bottle on the nearby counter. He held it in the air, and the girls gazed at it with matching quizzical looks on their faces. "Did you drink this whole bottle?"

"Never seen it before," Alex called out, and Natalya was nodding in vehement agreement when Kristin came through the door. She seemed infinitely relieved to find Nick there.

"Thank God you're back. I'm so tired of dealing with these two," she told him, waving an arm in their direction. Natalya had slipped out of Nick's arms and stumbled across the room to where the blond was standing, her arms crossed. Natalya's hands flew to Kristin's cheeks, pinching them.

"You're just mad we drank up all the good stuff before you found us!" Natalya cried, and Kristin was busy shoving her off when Kat appeared at the door. She had changed into her nightclothes and was feigning tiredness when she realized her mother wasn't in the room. Snapping back to normal she crossed between Kristin and the four armed monster that made up the form of Nick struggling to hold Natalya up.

"What is this, iced tea?" she asked, taking up Natalya's glass and giving it a sniff.

"No, don't," Nick and Kristin said in one voice, and Kat nearly dropped the glass. She gave them an annoyed look as she set the thing back down on the table.

"I wasn't going to _drink _it," she muttered, settling into a chair to watch the show. She didn't get to sit for more than a moment before a sleepy looking Derek appeared in the doorway she'd just vacated, Edmund close behind. Edmund wore a satisfied smirk when they appraised the situation, but Derek just heaved a sigh and covered his eyes with a hand.

"Kat, get to bed before your mother wakes up and finds you down here. Kristin, take Alex upstairs to bed, and Nick, do the same for Natalya. The kitchen is officially closed," he ordered, and everyone scattered. Kristin struggled to get Alex up out of her chair while Nick scooped Natalya neatly off her feet and pushed past them. Edmund was still chuckling and Derek thought he might punch the other man.

"I see you run quite a tight ship here, Derek," he commented before following the train of people headed to bed. Derek shot a final, wistful glance at the empty tequila bottle before turning and winding his own way to bed.

* * *

The next morning Natalya opened her eyes to bright sunshine, only to feel as though she'd been hit by a freight train. Nick was slumped on the bed by her side, tangled in the only blanket, and she found that she was freezing cold. She pulled a little at the sheets and Nick was shaken awake. He rolled toward her, an amused look on his face. She laid back and grimaced, as it was like her brain had shriveled in the night and was now banging against her skull.

"Feeling a little under the weather?" he asked, and she simply moaned in response, pulling the blanket over her head and curling up into the fetal position.

"Why do I feel like I'm going to throw up?" she asked, taking a sniff of the hair that had fallen into her face. "And why do I smell like a cheeseburger?"

"You must have been drunker than I thought," he commented with a laugh, reaching out to hand her the water glass he'd placed on the bedside last night. She'd refused to drink any then, and was clearly regretting it as she grabbed up what he offered and quickly downed half of it.

"Drunk?" she echoed, holding her breath until she was sure she wouldn't throw up. The last thing she remembered was waking up in bed the night before, with someone in her room.

"Yes, I believe you and Jose Cuervo are a whole lot closer now," he joked, but Natalya felt even more sick than before, and it wasn't because she was hung-over.

"I hate tequila," she whispered, and Nick just nodded, not understanding that she didn't just mean because it felt like she was about to be sick from it. She attempted a smile, but it looked more like a grimace than anything. "I'm going to take a shower."

She was up and in the bathroom before he could even respond, and as he left the room and made his way toward the kitchen he couldn't help but feel a little put out that she hadn't even thanked him for taking care of her the night before. His dejection was chased away by the image of Alex slumped over the table, a disgusting looking glass of dark orange-red liquid by her hand. Nick crossed the room and took a sniff of it, and was accosted by the scent of tomatoes and spices. He was going to take a sip when a noise across the room startled him.

"How's your drunk doing?" Kristin asked with a wry smile, taking a sip of her coffee and staring at him expectantly.

"She hates tequila," he explained simply, not quite ready to trust this new version of the woman he'd only known for a few days but hated immediately. He held up the drink in Kristin's direction. "What's this stuff?"

"Old family secret. My uncle was something of a drunk, and after a few years of him complaining through birthdays and picnics my mother came up with this little gem. Tomato juice, Tabasco sauce, and a few secret spices. Scares the hangover right out of you," she told him, rinsing out her cup as Derek appeared in the doorway. Nick wanted to say more, but Derek cut him off.

"Nick, can I talk to you in the library in a bit?" he asked, and Nick could only nod in response. He didn't really want to talk to Derek, he was afraid the man might have worked out something was going on between Nick and his daughter. So he took his time, showering and dressing for a run he planned to take. Finally he could avoid it no longer and made his way to the library. When he arrived he found Edmund was already there, and Derek motioned for Nick to take a seat. He did so slowly, planning his excuse to escape the entire time.

"What's going on, Derek?" he asked, and Derek shared a grudging look with Edmund.

"I was hoping you could do me a favor," he began, and Nick felt the air rush from his lungs. This wasn't going to be a lecture, or a reprimand. A favor he could do. "Edmund seems to think that Natalya's recent behavior is… out of character. I can't comment on it, because I think we all know I don't know much about my daughter." Those words cost him quite a bit, and Nick could see the pain flickering clearly across his face. "I want you to keep an eye on her, let me know if you notice anything out of the ordinary."

"You mean, besides the visions of dead people?" Nick couldn't help but ask, and the ghost of a smile glimmered on Derek's face.

"Yes, besides that." With his request made Nick was released. On his way from the library he happened to look out the window and was surprised to see Natalya stretching on the grass. He hurried down and around the courtyard to the back of the house.

"What are you doing?" he asked as he arrived, a cool wind blowing up and ruffling Natalya's dark hair as she pulled it up in a tight ponytail. She grinned up at him, a far-off kind of look in her eyes he'd never seen before.

"Going for a run. You game?" she asked, and something about the way she said it seemed very familiar.

"Aren't you sick from drinking?" he asked, even as he started stretching out his legs. She shrugged, holding her arms over her head and bending over to touch her toes.

"Not anymore. I had some of Kristin's miracle cure and I'm feeling a lot better," she told him, but his brain couldn't quite connect.

"You're calling her Kristin now? What happened to Barbie-bot, or she-devil, or…" he pondered, but was cut off by Natalya's retreating form.

"Are you coming or not?" she called back, and Nick couldn't stop himself from chasing after her. He caught up quickly, but after about a quarter mile he began to find that he couldn't really keep up. She wasn't muscular; if anything she was too skinny, so he didn't understand why he was having such a hard time matching her pace. After a while she turned to him, a sly smile on her lips. He was so caught off guard he almost stopped running; it looked nothing like any smile he'd ever seen on her face. If anything, it looked like… His thoughts were interrupted again when she took off sprinting. "Race you back to the house!"

It was a full-out race then, and the only sound Nick could hear was the blood roaring in his ears and his sneakers smashing against the dirt trail. He couldn't catch her, no matter how hard he seemed to run. After a while he decided to pour everything he had into running, and he finally caught up with her as he rounded the corner back into the backyard. They came tearing to a stop on the grassy hill, when he promptly crumpled with exhaustion. She fell by his side on the ground, laughing almost hysterically.

"How did you do that?" he huffed, clutching his aching side. She was still laughing as she rolled over on top of him, capturing his lips with hers and kissing him until he thought his head would explode from lack of oxygen. When she finally pulled away she still had that far-off stare and strange smile.

"Good workout," she announced, pushing herself up and walking toward the house without another word. Nick watched her go, all the while thinking that Edmund's observations might not be that far off.

* * *

_A/N: the plot thickens. anyone guess what's wrong with her just now? i think it's pretty obvious, and you guys are always right on top of what i'm planning. let's see who can guess... next chapter is the first big reveal!_


	14. chapter thirteen

( 13 )

Nick didn't get a chance to tell Derek what he found out, because the moment he walked back into the house he ran squarely into Philip.

"Afternoon, Nick," Philip said, and stopped when he noticed the puzzled look on Nick's face.

"Is it really afternoon?" he asked, rubbing at his already sore muscles. Philip nodded, regarding the other man carefully.

"Are you okay? You look like you just ran a marathon," Philip commented, and Nick couldn't stop the sigh that sprang forth.

"Yeah, I guess I kind of did. Derek asked me to keep an eye on Talya, but in order to do that I'd have to be able to keep up with her. I didn't even know she was a runner," he explained, and Philip's eyes widened. He laughed a little.

"You're kidding, right? The only time I've ever seen her run was to catch a bus so she wouldn't have to walk three blocks," Philip explained. Nick shrugged, starting to walk to the kitchen, hoping the conversation would trail off. For some reason he didn't particularly like hearing about all the things Philip knew about Natalya, especially since they'd clearly kept in touch over the years. He was surprised to find how much it tore at his heart that she'd called Philip and not him. Philip sensed the other man's displeasure and trailed after him. "It didn't just happen, you know."

"What are you talking about?" Nick asked, feigning ignorance as he poured himself a cup of burnt coffee. Not bothering to add cream or sugar he promptly drank half, while Philip gazed at him appraisingly.

"My seeing Talya. It seems like it's bugging you, the fact that she and I are still friends," he said, and Nick cursed the fact that the other man had spent so long listening to confessions. He'd honed in on Nick's insecurity right away, and now there was no escape. "I had to work at it. She completely ignored me at first, I had to keep calling and writing. I wrote to her once a week for almost a year before she responded, and even then it was just a letter. I didn't see her again until she was almost nineteen."

"So what you're saying is," Nick began, feeling his blood beginning to boil, "That at age fifteen, just before my father kicked it, I didn't try hard enough to contact someone who left without saying goodbye? Wow, Phil, thanks. I feel so much better."

He pushed past the taller man and out of the kitchen. This time Philip let him go, thinking the whole time how funny it was that Nick envied something Philip had. Philip thought he might spend his whole life wanting the one thing Nick didn't even realize he had; freedom.

* * *

The sun had long since vanished from the sky when Derek followed the sound of a piano through the house. He was used to seeing visions when he heard such music, and had been hoping to come across Christina or some other spirit keen on helping him work out the problem with the house. That's why he was so surprised to find Natalya seated by the window, fingers flying over the keys and voice following along sweetly. He distinctly remembered going to see her band when she was still living at the house, at some dive club she wouldn't be old enough to get into for another five years, and her voice wouldn't exactly have lured sailors to their death. Now, though, there was something sad and soft about the song she was singing, and the voice she was using was one he'd never heard before. He listened a while before she realized he was there, and slowly stopped her song.

"You don't have to stop on my account, that song is beautiful. I didn't mean to listen in on you," he explained quickly, thinking she was going to be as uncomfortable with his presence as ever. Instead she stared at him, gaze a little hazy, and gave a wistful sideways smile.

"Derek," she breathed, and he realized that the reason that the song had sounded so strange was because the voice she was using didn't sound anything like her own. She blinked, realizing his shock, and stood with a little more clarity than she'd had before. "Dad," she corrected, tones sounding more normal now. She walked toward him, and he felt as though maybe he was having a vision. She had a kind of grace she'd never had before. The Natalya he was used to seemed to be a blur of motion, jangling nerves smoothed over by a calm exterior. This new Natalya creature was serene straight to the core.

"Natalya, are you okay?" he asked, and he was sure he stopped breathing for a moment as she stepped up in front of him.

"Fine, just thinking," she answered, wrapping her arms around his waist. It had been years since she'd hugged him, and he was surprised to find that all his paternal love for her was very much intact, despite the distance. "It's not your fault, not really. Just remember that, okay?"

Her statement was careful, as though she were genuinely concerned about his wellbeing. With that she turned and started out of the room, stopping for just a moment to look back at him. He took a step back as she stared at him, absolutely sure for a moment that her eyes were brown instead of green.

* * *

When Nick finally caught up with Natalya again she was in the library, up where he'd found her on the first night. He climbed the stairs cautiously, anxious to see if she was still acting out of sorts. When he reached the landing he found her on the floor, sitting cross-legged, a black legacy journal on her lap. It was one he'd never seen before, a tiny flower pin pushed through the leather cover in one corner. He took a step forward before he stopped, a single name on his lips. He'd know those eyes anywhere.

"Julia," he whispered, and the person in front of him smiled. She had Natalya's body, but those big brown eyes were only Julia's.

"Come sit down, Nick," she ordered, voice wavering dangerously between two completely different tones.

"How long… have you been…?" he asked, thinking to all the times Natalya had kissed him over the past weeks, wondering if it had really been Julia the whole time. She seemed to notice his discomfort and reached out to touch his hand.

"Not long. It could never be long enough for me. I can't stay, though; I've already stayed longer than I should have. I just miss you all so much, Lexie and Derek, and especially you, Nick," she explained, and everything fell into place. Julia had always been fast, they'd gone running every morning together. That was how he'd fallen in love with her, chasing her through the woods.

"Why? And how…?" His questions were unformed, but she knew exactly what he needed to know.

"Natalya was in danger. The artifacts, the people, everything about this place is calling out in the spirit world. It's irresistible."

"A beacon," Nick interrupted, and Natalya/Julia nodded.

"There's others here, people that want to hurt you," she told him, and he nodded.

"Like my father," he supplied. Her face fell.

"And worse," she explained, though he couldn't imagine much worse than that. "If I didn't possess her, something else would have. She was weakened by something, a darkness in her heart. She's still in danger, but I can't stay. She should be safe for now, but you're going to have to do something about this house."

"We'll leave! I'll take her away from here, to somewhere that's less like a spiritual Holiday Inn," he cried, and she gave him a weary smile.

"It's not that simple," she corrected, touching his hand gently. The hair on his arm stood straight up. "They've got a taste for her now, and one of them wants her for another reason. He won't stop at anything until he has her. You've got to get rid of them here, or they'll follow her for the rest of her life."

"How?"

"I don't know. But I think it starts with making her strong again. She and Kat are especially strong, which is why their visions are different from Lexie and Derek's. It's going to be hard, and you've got to be there for her. No matter what, Nick, remember what I said. No matter what happens, you have to help her. She needs you. She might be in love with you," she explained, and he could see the pain on her face.

"I'm sorry, Jules. I'm sorry you have to go," he told her, and she had already wrapped him up in her arms.

"I know you are. It's okay, though, you know. To love her. I'd be sad if you held back because of me," she finished, standing up by his side. She softly kissed his cheek and pressed the journal into his hands, slipping by him and starting down the stairs. She paused before she left the library, giving him a little wave and disappearing into the hallway. He wanted to follow her, to ask her all the other questions he'd thought of since she'd died… but when he flipped open cover of the journal in his hands he knew there were bigger matters to tend to. On the top of the first yellowed page someone had scrawled a title in childish script. It read:

**_Diary of a Ghosthunter's Granddaughter;  
the Life and Times of the Fabulous Natalya Eve Rayne_**

_

* * *

_

_a/n: long time no see! ask and ye shall receive! the early bird gets the worm! anyway... things are getting a little crazy. part one, secret revealed... part two, well... all hell's about to break loose! i had been considering how to proceed from the last chapter, and i'm all outlined now, so let's hope for no more several month interruptions!_


	15. chapter fourteen

( 14 )

He was still reading the diary when Alex came into the library. Somehow, she seemed oblivious to the tension in Nick's posture as he frantically flipped the pages, hoping he would come to the end and Natalya would have added an author's note, declared the whole thing fiction. He looked up and caught her eye, and it was then she realized something was wrong.

The words tumbled past him, and he tried to stop reading but couldn't. Entries began around the time Natalya was about the turn thirteen, lighthearted pages about how she wanted to be treated as an adult, as well as a vivid retelling of the time Nick broke the nose of a boy named Oliver Kirkpatrick who had been giving her a hard time. This was the Natalya he remembered, the bright and funny girl he sometimes caught a glimpse of when she wasn't paying attention. But a few entries in the whole thing turned dark, angry and lonely, and through ripped and tearstained pages he came to understand just how little he knew about why she'd left.

"What are you reading?" Alex questioned, slipping into the seat next to him and tugging on the book. He let it go numbly, unable to believe the things he'd read. All his life he'd thought Natalya's disappearance had something to do with him, her feelings for him, and now that he knew differently he didn't know if he was relieved or heartbroken. Alex sucked in a surprised breath as she saw what she was holding. "This is what I've been looking for! I knew I'd read about Kat and Natalya's visions somewhere, but I haven't been able to find it since I started looking. Oh," she stopped, having read the inscription on the front page. Her eyes flew to his, but his gaze was fixed somewhere very far away. "I didn't realize this was hers."

"We… we have to get rid of it," he whispered, suddenly very certain that the confessions contained inside those pages should remain a secret. He was shocked by his own words, not knowing where the sentiment came from. Alex seemed confused as well, flipping through a few pages until she got to some of the later entries.

"I didn't read all of it before, not any of the parts that mentioned you or Philip. What does it say?" she asked, as she picked through the words. It was when she finally came to the passages that made Nick physically angry that Derek came in, a confused and faraway look on his face.

"What does what say?" he wondered absently, and Nick had already grabbed the journal and flown across the room. It was too late, though, Alex had already read too much and she watched him with tears in her eyes. She looked between the two, waiting for Nick to admit what they both knew. Derek's brow furrowed, motioning to where Nick was standing defensively.

"You have to tell him, Nick," Alex said, voice cracking. She was standing then, too, moving toward him.

"Tell me what?" Derek pressed, suddenly very alert to the fact that all was not right in the library. Nick knew he should tell, but something held him back. It was irrational, an anger and a fear, and he KNEW that he must keep the secret above all else.

"It's nothing." Nick scanned the library, wondering where he could run and how soon he could burn the book clutched in his hands.

"It definitely is not _nothing_!" Alex argued, moving toward him to take the journal. Rachel and Kat arrived in the doorway simultaneously, drawn by the noise. They both paled, but it was Kat who was across the room in a fury. Usually the small girl would be no match for the former Navy S.E.A.L, but she caught him off guard and tackled him from behind. They tumbled to the floor, a ball of man and teenager, and her fists were flying at lightning speed. Nick didn't seem to have any of his usual self defense skills, and Kat bludgeoned him repeatedly in the head. The others crowded around in a circle, but no one seemed ready to step in until Rachel seemed to shake herself free. She tried to wrestle her daughter away, but found the girl strangely strong.

"Isn't it bad enough that you're here, torturing her? Isn't it bad enough what you did?" Kat was screaming, hands now latched firmly around his neck. "Get out of him, and leave us all alone!"

It only took a few seconds for Nick to shudder on the floor, a strange shadow passing over his face and his features going slack. He dropped the book and stared up at Kat in shock. She wrapped her arms around him then, hugging him tight, and he held her back desperately.

"How did you know?" he murmured hoarsely, and she shrugged.

"Psychic, remember?" she quipped, and he smiled for just a brief moment before climbing to his feet and pulling her along with them. Her face darkened, and his followed suit. "I had a dream, that's all. She denied it, but I know it's true. My dreams always are." When they were both standing they turned to face the others, Alex very close to tears and Derek and Rachel wearing identical masks of confusion. Nick had no patience for explanation, he was filled with a new rage all his own.

"You brought him here," Nick started, ignoring the brief interruption being possessed had caused and wheeling around on Derek, who had picked up the journal and was staring down at it as though it were a snake. "You let him in the house and you didn't watch him. He said he was a holy man, but evil things say that all the time. You're psychic, Derek? How could you not know?"

"Nick, stop. It's not his fault," Alex said, reaching out to take his arm. He pulled away roughly, watching as Derek's face shifted through the various stages of rage and pain as he pieced through the entries. Rachel sighed, throwing up her hands.

"Why do I feel like the only one who doesn't know what's going on?" she cried, and while she expected a hard look from her perpetually annoyed daughter none came. Instead Kat sighed too, shaking her head as if to tell her mother to leave it alone.

"He found Natalya's journal," Alex began to explain.

"Julia gave it to me," Nick corrected automatically, and all eyes were on him in an instant. He paced away from them, not quite knowing what to do with his energy.

"And there are some entries about a man, someone named Bishop McCreary. He came to stay here during the summer before Philip entered the seminary," Alex continued, but her voice broke before she could get to what was important.

"Tell her, Alex. Everyone's going to know now, now that's he dead and haunting our halls, possessing me and going after Taly in the middle of the night," Nick added. "Turns out the good Bishop wasn't so good after all. Turns out he had a thing for little girls."

The laughter that rang out in the hall was so inappropriate that everyone paused, and Nick wasn't sure if it was real or if he was having some kind of delusion. Natalya and Philip walked through the door then, and Philip finished whatever story he was using to draw some amusement from her. She looked quite happy, and Philip seemed much the same, but the moment they passed the threshold she noticed immediately that something was terribly wrong.

"What's going on?" Natalya asked, her eyes suddenly wary. Julia was gone, Nick realized with only a little disappointment. Derek was in silent anguish in the corner, with Rachel struggling to console him, which left the explanations to Nick and Kat. Before he could even open his mouth Natalya's eyes snapped to the journal, which still lay on the table where Derek had dropped it, and her face paled. "Where the hell did you get that?"

"A friend gave it to me," Nick said quietly, and Philip cast a curious look between the two. He'd already taken a step forward, toward the table, but Natalya was too busy silently pleading with Nick to notice. His voice hitched painfully when he spoke. "Why didn't you tell me? Taly, I would have killed him if I'd known."

Kat was climbing the few steps up to stand by her side, laying a hand on her friend's arm in a show of solidarity. Natalya was shaking her head, the tears in her eyes threatening to well over her eyelids like a swollen river.

"I threw that damn thing in the water, the first night I got here. Where did you get it?" she hissed.

"It looks familiar. What's so special about it?" Philip asked, already picking the journal up off the table.

"Don't touch it!" Natalya's voice was nothing but a shrill screech and she was down the stairs, nearly leaping across the table to try to grab at the book. Philip was so surprised he dropped it with a heavy thud, and Nick had stepped forward to hold her back. The book fluttered a little, and Nick was sure he could smell Julia's perfume for just a moment when the pages flipped neatly to a passage stained with tears and nearly ripped from the binding.

_I hate Bishop McCreary so much I want to scream. I know I shouldn't have taken the car and crashed it, but I couldn't spend another moment in the house with him. Dad likes him so much, and so does Philip. I wish they knew who he really was. I wish I could tell them. Being a priest is so important to Philip, I can't let the Bishop take that away from him because of me. I'll keep my secret, but I swear if he ever touches me again I'll kill him…_

Years of translations and bible study had made Philip a quick reader, and by the time he'd finished the passage and looked up the shock registered clearly on his face. Natalya's unshed tears had broken free, falling in rivers that streaked her cheeks. She was shaking hard in Nick's arms, and he wanted nothing more than to hold and soothe her, but she was wrenching free and pushing the book off the table. She locked eyes firmly with Philip, who was watching her numbly.

"Tell me it's not true," he whispered, voice catching hard in his throat. "Tell me you didn't do that, let him get away with hurting you, because of me."

"It's lies, all of it. I made it up, Philip, all of it. Please don't believe it," she sobbed, but from the look in her eyes she'd meant every word in that journal. Philip didn't seem able to process the information, turning and fleeing the room. Natalya moved to follow him, but Nick held her back.

"Everyone needs to calm down. If we take some time, I'm sure we can sort this out," Rachel interjected, using her best psychiatrist voice. Alex and Kat were watching the situation with sad eyes, and Derek had yet to say a single word, but Natalya was whirling around on Nick, a look of pure rage in her eyes.

"What gave you the right to tell my secrets?" she asked, voice rising sharply. He tried to pull her to him, but she was pushing him away roughly. "That was my secret, my burden. I spent years carrying this on my own, and now everyone knows. Don't you see how you've hurt _everyone_ by telling them this?"

The accusation in her voice stung more than anything. It wasn't like he'd done it on purpose, if anything it had been Julia's doing, but the wrecked look in her eyes made him feel like maybe it was his fault. Righteous indignation kicked back just in time, and he fought not to growl back at her.

"People needed to know, okay? Derek thinks you hate him, but has no idea why. You let Philip spend his life idolizing a child molester, and me, I'm the biggest fool of all, because I spent all this time thinking that your leaving had something to do with me, something I did," he told her, feeling the anger burning in him like he'd never experienced before. He wanted to hit something, someone, and the feeling was terrifying. She was already narrowing her eyes at him, an unfamiliar darkness shining there.

"Go to hell, Nick Boyle," she said, and a crack of lightning lit the room, followed by a peal of ominous thunder. She was out the door before anyone could say anything else, and silence fell in the library again. Derek was the next to go, toward his study, with Rachel hot on his heels, and Nick was out the door without a word. Kat and Alex exchanged a look, just as Kristin immerged from the control room.

"I heard shouting, did I miss something?" she asked, and Kat just laughed in a short, un-amused way before turning to follow Alex's retreating form.

* * *

_A/N: i guess the real problem with this story is that the longer i spent away from it, the more i realized how ooc everyone is, and how the "big reveal" of talya's big secret is actually pretty lame. dunno, it's been a long time since i wrote fanfic, but i've yet to abandon something i wrote more than a single chapter on, so if you're still here you'll probably see a conclusion someday! minimal proofreading, i'm a creature of impulse these days…_


	16. chapter fifteen

( 15 )

The minute Philip got outside he promptly bent over one of the bushes in the garden and was violently ill, stomach spasming painfully until he was on his knees. The rain had already started to fall, a steady breeze blowing up the front lawn. Because they were on an island it wasn't unusual weather, but something about the wind felt sinister, and Philip pushed through it as he started walking toward the trees. No one followed him this time, and he didn't care what he might find out in the darkness. He needed to be alone.

How had he missed it? A million questions were spinning through his brain, but that one was the loudest. He'd been taught in the seminary to listen to people, to try to understand their motivations and emotions. That was why he got along with Rachel; they were both trained to get to the bottom of people's problems, even if Philip's solution was a bit more mystical than hers. Now he felt as though he knew nothing, about human nature or God, and least of all about Natalya. When he thought of the time he'd spent agonizing about her, dissecting his feelings and conflicting emotions… his stomach twisted again and he had to swallow hard to keep from throwing up again.

When he finally pushed through the tree line it was quieter. The wind was still howling through the trees above, branches croaking and groaning, but the house on the hill looked strangely calm, all lit up like the inhabitants were afraid to be in the dark. He thought he saw a face in one of the second floor windows, but it was gone before he could be sure. Soaked through he paused, leaning against a nearby tree trunk. He had nowhere to go; the last ferry had sailed long ago, and there wouldn't be another till morning. He couldn't go back to the house, at least not until he got a grip on his emotions. Where did someone go, he wondered, when they discovered their whole life was a lie?

* * *

Derek didn't bother with the lights. He knew he should follow his daughter, console her, get her to talk. Knowing these things didn't help, though, because after that first step toward her he'd taken thirty more in the opposite direction, not stopping until he was inside his office. Sitting down at the desk he sat in a numb silence for a few moments before the door creaked open and Rachel let herself in. He didn't look at her as she moved around the desk to stand in front of him. It was obvious from her posture she wanted to hold him, but he was already turning toward the rain-blurred cityscape.

"Nick was right," he said quietly, and Rachel shook her head.

"Nick was angry."

"I should have known. I knew when she failed math, and I knew when she and Nick broke an antique mirror playing dodgeball in the foyer. I should have known." He fell silent again, searching his memories desperately for clues he might have missed. This time Rachel couldn't help herself, placing a hand on his shoulder and squeezing.

"You're psychic; Derek, but you're not God. You can't know everything. What's important now is that you know, and you can be there for her," Rachel explained gently, but he didn't seem to be listening. Rachel pressed on, "Just give her a little time to cool down and then go talk to her. I'm sure she has things to say that aren't going to be easy to hear, but if you ever wanted to be closer to her now is your chance."

When she stopped speaking he turned around slowly, a look of disbelief on his face.

"Did you hear what she said Rachel? Do you even understand what that bastard, my friend, someone I brought into this house… do you realize what he did?" he asked, the anger clear in his tone.

"Of course I understand, but I really think the two of you can have a communication breakthrough tonight," she said, and he was standing up before she could react.

"A breakthrough? What's wrong with you? Don't you feel anything, or is it all just numbers and analysis? Stop talking about _communication_ and tell me why this happened to my daughter!" He was screaming then, and Rachel had to take a step back. When he saw the tears in her eyes he stopped, confused.

"If I stop talking about that stuff, if I let myself think about what happened to her, I'll lose it. I don't even want to imagine how you're feeling right now, don't even want to think about how I would feel if something like this happened to Kat. So all I can do is what I do best, and I'm sorry," she finished, and as her breath caught in her throat with a choking sob he reached out and pulled her to him, arms wrapped tight around her shoulders.

"I'm sorry, it's hard to think," he whispered, and since she didn't have anything to say she just hugged him back tightly.

* * *

On the second floor, things were flying. Natalya was emptying her bedroom shelves with increasing speed, sending everything into a pile across the room. Books, picture frames, stuffed animals, all tossed indiscriminately. When she finally came to the object she was searching for she went to sit hard on the bed, twisting off the top and taking a generous drink. Vodka, twelve years old but still potent, not tequila. It felt good to be herself again.

Well, as good as having everyone find out the truth about a secret you'd been keeping since you were thirteen could feel. She didn't know who she was angrier with, Nick for telling everyone or herself for thinking she could keep such a huge secret forever. Part of her knew she shouldn't be angry with Nick, but the looks on their faces was enough to make her want to die right there in the library. The worst was Philip, and knowing that he could have gone his whole life thinking that there was nothing wrong.

"You know that only makes them worse," a voice told her, and she felt someone pull the bottle away as she took another huge gulp. Kat's serious face gazed down at her, and Natalya raised an eyebrow.

"The question is how do _you_ know that?" Natalya asked, watching as Kat shrugged and took a seat by her side.

"That's not a real question, Talya," Kat said, and Natalya nodded. Since they'd come to the conclusion that they experienced the same kind of visions it had been hard to keep secrets. It didn't take them long to realize they'd been dreaming each other's lives for quite a while.

"What am I going to do?" Natalya asked after a while, not caring that she was asking a thirteen year old girl for advice. Kat shrugged, laying the vodka bottle down on the floor and spinning it with her foot.

"Maybe it's time to face your fears," she offered, and didn't say anything when Natalya slid off the bed to collect the bottle again.

Natalya twisted the cap between her fingers in a thoughtful silence before downing what was left and curling up on the floor, head resting on a wayward stuffed animal. "It's not my fears I'm worried about. Things were just starting to be right again, and now all this has come out." The liquor burned all the way down her throat, settling heavy and cold in her chest. Kat was still staring, a wariness in her gaze.

"Whose reaction are you more worried about, Nick or Philip?" she asked, even though she was pretty sure she knew the answer. When Natalya didn't answer Kat sighed again, grabbing the comforter off the bed and taking a place on the carpet, throwing the blanket on top of both of them. She lined herself up so they were back to back. Sometimes you just needed someone keeping watch behind you. Finally she balled a nearby sweatshirt into a makeshift pillow and cast a quick look back at Natalya. "Just don't hurt Nick, okay? He really loves you, even if he can't admit it. I think you love him too, but deep down you might love the other one more."

Natalya shut her eyes tight against the mild accusation. "I could never ask that of him, after all this time. I could never ask him to give up everything, his life, his work, for me."

"I don't think you'd have to ask him. I'm pretty sure he's already well on his way there."

* * *

_A/N: hey people. sorry this took so long, i've been dragging my feet because i don't much care for this chapter. but i think good things are coming, i know it._

_that, and i've been working on a video to accompany the story. it's currently posted on youtube, username lucyfilmmaker._


End file.
